MONROVIA – The Best-Porte family regrets to announce the sudden death of Emmanuel Pittman, aka, Junior Best, of Broad Street Snapper Hill, Monrovia. He was 63. Junior Best died Wednesday morning, following a brief illness. His only child, Isaac Pittman was at his side when he went to meet his Maker.
Junior Best as he was commonly known on Snapper Hill, was given to the late Lilian Porte Best by his father, Thomas Pittman at the tender age of five months. Lilian Best raised Junior as her own along with her children and grandchildren.
Junior Best was born February 11, 1956. He attended B. W. Harris Episcopal High School and graduated from Wells Hairston High School.
Junior Best was one of the pillars of Snapper Hill, where he grew up and ran a restaurant and bar. He started the restaurant during the height of the civil war. The ECOMOG soldiers who came to restore peace to Liberia were among his many customers. In the mid-1990s, he was featured in West Africa magazine, serving food to the soldiers.
Junior Best is survived by his only child, Isaac; three sister, Muriel Best, Ina King and Yvonne Adighibe, four brothers, Kenneth Y. Best, Lorenzo Witherspoon, Kelvin Best and Keith Best and a host of other relatives and friends.
The body of Emmanuel Junior Best Pittman will be removed from the A.B. Anderson Funeral Home on Lynch Street at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 27, 2019 and taken to the Trinity Cathedral Church on Broad Street for funeral Mass at 9 a.m. Burial will take place on Porte Hill in Crozierville.