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Lizann (Rous)
ELIZABETH ANN 'LIZANN'4 ROUS (GRAHAM COLE3, JAMES COLE2, JAMES COOPER1) was
born 28 October 1935 in Middelburg, and died 12 February 2000 in North Riding
Johannesburg. She married LEON VERCUIEL 17 December 1960 in Middelburg. He was
born 15 July 1931 in Maraisburg Transvaal. LIZANN is the granddaughter of of ANNA
LOUISE6 FLEMMER (CHRISTIAN LUDVIG5) born 28 January 1874 in Cradock South Africa,
and died 22 February 1941 in Frances St. Observatory Johannesburg. Anna married
JAMES COLE ROUS 26 March 1902 in the DRC Cradock South Africa, son of JAMES ROUS
and ALIXA COLE. He was born 25 April 1874 in Pretoria, and died 9 May 1931 in
Middelburg.
Elizabeth Ann Rous, known as Lizann, was born to Graham and Joan Cole
Rous on a Monday evening on the 28th of October 1935 at Stradbroke farm, Middleburg
Cape. Graham Rous left for the war when she was very young and she felt his absence
acutely. At one point she asked her mother "Mummy, did God also make the Germans?"
"Yes, darling" Joan replied. "Well then its Gods fault that there is a war now!"
At five years of age she was sent to boarding school in Cradock. She
matriculated from Collegiate in Port Elizabeth. She went on to study Microbiology
at the University of Cape Town and obtained a B.Sc. She did research work at Onderstepoort
and was involved in the first heart transplants on animals. She later worked at
the Polio Research Institute in Johannesburg.
She married Leon Oliver
Vercueil, a mechanical engineer, on the 17th of December 1960. Leon matriculated
from St. Johns College and attained his B.Sc (mechanical engineering) at the University
of the Witwatersrand in 1952; studied part time and obtained an M.Comm in 1956
from Pretoria University. He worked in the engineering industry becoming a managing
director of companies. He retired in 1993. He was also a part time farmer for
35 years.
Lizann was an avid sports woman. She played provincial hockey
and squash. She obtained her Springbok colours in 1960 for squash and was the
South African Woman's Champion in 1960 and 1961.
She had her first child,
Kim, on the 19th February 1964 at Marymount Hospital, followed by two boys, Graham
Rous Vercueil on the 22nd March 1966 and Pierre Mentz Vercueil on the 22nd of
June 1968 both at Marymount Nursing Home. She was an excellent speaker and won
the International Toastmistress award for South Africa.
She joined the
staff of Rosebank Bible College in about 1975 and taught on both the Old and New
Testament for over 20 years. She later taught at Rhema Bible College for a number
of years. Her love of sport was later manifest in her passion for cycling. She
and Leon cycled tandem and enjoyed races such as the Argus. She was the first
woman veteran to cross the finish line! She loved the bush, particulary the farm
on the Limpopo, Beskow, where she hunted, walked and boasted at making the 'biggest
bond fires yet'.
Lizann died on the12th of February 2000 after a long
fight against breast cancer. Her Children gave the following tribute to her at
her funeral:
"This is to honour 'Liza' and dad as their children for
what she imparted into our characters and for the legacy that she has left for
us, for who mum and dad will always be to us.
Firstly, we honour dad
for his choice of wife, of a mother to his children, for the friend and companion
she was to us all. She has been a friend to each of us, in turn, often our closest
friend, at times it felt as though she was our only friend! She instilled into
our characters a sense of passion and enthusiasm and optimism that has enabled
us to grasp life and live deliberately with conviction. She opened our eyes to
look over the horizon and closed our personal space to love with affection.
Liza left a legacy of prayer as our inheritance. She prayed for our husbands
and wives before we even knew them, she prayed for her grandchildren before they
were conceived, and so she has blessed us to the 100th generation. Our children
will know her through our passion, our conviction, our affection.
Liza
was WILD! So much of what mum did, who she was so free to be and what she so amazingly
achieved, was because of the rock solid stability that dad has been in all our
lives. He guided her, calmed some of that craziness, he provided, protected and
secured everything around her, so that she could be the woman of God she was.
She loved dad.
What an amazing 'gogo' (grandmother) she was. Dad said
she would grow up with her kids, but I thin that we relinquished the responsibility
of 'growing mum up' to her grandchildren. What an incredible appetite for fun
she had, something we will all remember her by".
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