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Name: CASE, Mary Violet, Mrs

Nee: Smith, dau. of William Alexander (Rooken) Smith

Birth Date: 15 Nov 1910 Bloomsfield, S. Africa

Death Date: 12 Apr 2002 Australia

First Date: 1910

Last Date: 2001

Profession: Governess, farm manager

Area: Ol Kalou

Married: In Nairobi 1948 William Herbert 'Bertie' Case (1910-1987)

Children: Anthony Brian (1951); Hazel Margaret (Donovan) (1953) who qualified as a nurse at Edinburgh Royal

Book Reference: Gillett, RS, Women

General Information:

Bertie and Vi farmed at Ol Kalou until their farm was taken over when they retired to Malindi where they had a house. Bertie died on 8-7-87. 
Women - 2002/2 - Vi was born on the farm, Bloomsfield, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, on November 15th 1910. She first came to Kenya sometime between 1916/18. Later she returned to South Africa for her education. In 1929 she returned to Kenya and made it her home until her departure from Malindi in October 2001.  Over the years she worked as a governess, a farm manager during the war years and assisting family wherever she could. She was one of the original EAWL members from Ol Kalou. In 1948 she married Bertie Case and they farmed at Ol Kalou, bringing up two children, Tony and Hazel. In 1965 their Ol Kalou property was taken over for Settlement and the family moved to Malindi where she lived for the next 36 years, busying herself looking after people's houses and her own home and family. She joined the EAWL Malindi branch when it was formed and was famous for her knitting. Vi was a person that life did not treat kindly in her early years and she resolved that after she married she would strive mightily for those things she held dear and precious. She was told not to have children due to her health - she had them anyway, quite late in life. And so she followed her own outspoken, but unwavering creed, of a good mother, loyal friend and an inspiration to all those of us who knew her well. She was the last of her father's 17 children to pass on, despite the fact that ill health in early life did not bode well for her longevity. Vi recently moved to Australia to live with Tony, but died on April 12th 2002, approximately 6 months after leaving her beloved Malindi. An era has disappeared with Vi, and we are very much the poorer for it. [Compiled by her sister-in-law, Marjorie Nye-Chart]

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