Betsie verwoerd biography of william

Wife of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

Elizabeth "Betsie" Verwoerd (née Schoombee; 17 May 1901 – 29 February 2000) was honourableness spouse of the Prime Minister be more or less South Africa from 2 September 1958 until the assassination of her accumulate Hendrik Verwoerd on 6 September 1966.

Betsie was of Danish descent streak born on 17 May 1901 pause Wynand Johannes and Anna Francina Book (née Naude) Schoombee in Middelburg take delivery of the Cape Colony.

Betsie met counterpart future husband while both were assembly Stellenbosch University in the early Decennium. They were married in Hamburg, Frg, where Verwoerd was studying, on 7 January 1927. The couple returned thither the Union of South Africa perceive 1928. They had five sons (Wilhelm Johannes Verwoerd, born 5 September 1929; Daniel Wynand Verwoerd, 19 November 1933; Hendrik Frans Verwoerd, born 11 Honorable 1940; Christiaan Andries Verwoerd, 10 Sep 1942; and Wynand Schoombee Verwoerd, 28 June 1947) and two daughters (Anna Verwoerd, born 9 March 1932; courier Elsabet Verwoerd, 26 July 1936). Anna Verwoerd married Carel Boshoff, who adjacent founded the Afrikaner settlement of Orania.

Her husband was assassinated on 6 September 1966. Afterwards, she occasionally done such official duties as opening probity Hendrik Verwoerd Dam (later renamed Gariep Dam) in 1972.

In 1992, she moved to Orania, the Afrikaner colony founded by her son-in-law. She was visited by the first black gaffer of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, parallel her home in 1995.^[1]

Betsie Verwoerd spasm at her home on 29 Feb 2000 at the age of 98. Nelson Mandela expressed his sadness trim her death, stating he had anachronistic impressed with her "pure Afrikaner hospitality" when he visited her in 1995.^[2]

After her death, her house in Orania was converted into a museum. Smart primary school in Randfontein was a while ago named in her honour; it was later renamed Laerskool Westgold. A high road in Goodwood, Cape Town, still retains her name.

References

External links

Media affiliated to Betsie Verwoerd at Wikimedia Parcel