| 7. | Cynthia Theron was born on 20 Sep 1934 in Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was christened on 27 Jan 1935 in Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa (daughter of Christian Gert Conradie Theron and Johanna Andrichetta Teubes Koch); died on 6 Jun 1998 in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was buried in Bathurst Church (St John's - Anglican), Bathurst, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Other Events and Attributes:
- WID : Widowed: 15 May 1998, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Notes:
Contributed by her daughter Caitlin
Cynthia was the eldest of three children and also had an adopted sister. Her Mother was a school teacher, her Father a journalist. She went to Rocklands School in Cradock up to Std.6, and then completed her schooling in Cape Town at Jan van Riebeeck High School. In 1952 at the age of 17, she began her degree at Rhodes, where she spent four happy years. At the end of 1955 she graduated with an honours degree, majoring in Psychology and Social Anthropology, both of which were conferred on her cum laude. She was also awarded an overseas scholarship which she regretfully declined and married my father in December of that year. They actually married each other twice in the space of one week, the first was an elopement and the other a large society wedding to please the family. The first year of their married life was spent in Port Elizabeth, where my mother worked for the Mental Health Society in a day care centre.
The following year my parents lived in London. My mother taught a class of troubled teenagers. A wonderful holiday in Norway, a romantic Christmas Eve and suddenly they were going to be parents.They returned to South Africa where we were all born.
My parents moved from Barkly East to the farm Hillside near Maclear. They ran an Afrikaans holiday farm where school children came in the holidays to learn Afrikaans. At the end of 1963 they left the farm and moved to Natal, where they bought a 500 acre farm, where for the next 6 years they continued to teach Afrikaans to school children as a holiday farm. My mother established a large garden and later began to grow aloes and started a nursery. She wrote newspaper and magazine articles and gave lectures and slide shows to garden clubs. Cycads began to appear in the garden and she started to propagate cycads from seed. In the early seventies when asked to write an article on cycads she found little printed material so started her own research which grew into a book. Barbara Jeppe illustrated it. My parents travelled thousands of kilometers to photograph cycads for the book. They visited Mojadji, the Rain Queen and photographed cycads that grew in the gorges. Her book appeared in 1974 and remains a landmark work. Her great passion for the last 27 years was campaigning against illegal trade in wild plants and ensuring the endangered species protection and survival.
She gave invaluable support to the Natal Parks Board, running training courses to teach how to identify cycads. In 1991 she won the first Natal Parks Board, Conservator of the Year Award and was presented with a bronze rhino. In 1993 she was honoured as a world authority for her work in protecting cycads.Every 3 years the Rolex Watch Company of Geneva sponsors the International Rolex Awards for Enterprise and nominates five laureates in the fields of Applied Sciences, Invention, Exploration, Discovery,and the Enviornment. She received an Honourable Mention in the field of Horticulture, for a proposed establishment of a wildlife sanctuary for cycads in Edendale. At a ceremony at Kings House in Durban, she was presented with a gold Rolex chronometer and scroll. She was the first South African to receive this award.
She served on several committees and attended meetings all over the world including Nice, Brussels, Chiang Mai in Thailand, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Kew Gardens and Malawi. In her private life she enjoyed making minature dolls houses and furnishing them. She was a superb cook. She devoted almost 40 years to researching the Giddy family tree, and when in England enjoyed researching tombstones and church records for family connections.
My mother had a nomadic spirit, she was an author, lecturer, horticulturalist, nursery woman, botanical photographer, miniaturist, philatelist, gourmet cook, genealogist, globe trotter, social anthropoligist and historian. In Bathurst she found a niche amongst friends and blossomed in a happier more peaceful time of her life. She had an ability to organise and get things done, not always without clashes, fire was her nature, she did not suffer fools gladly.
She died as a result of complications following the same MVA as her husband.
Ecclestiastes 12: 1-7.
Died:
Description: complications following the same motor accident
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