Iris Winnifred King née Ewart (1910–2000), was born in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, on September 5, 1910.

She attended the Kingston Technical High School[1] in Kingston and later the Roosevelt University in Chicago where she studied political science and public administration from 1951-'53.

[2] In 1958–1959 she served as a mayor of Kingston and was the first woman in that function.