Adele Ossher

Adèle Ossher (1920 -2019) was an amateur actress, playwright and director.

Biography

Born in Ladysmith, Natal, she grew up in Durban. She was a strong swimmer, tennis player and played hockey for Natal Schools. After leaving school she attended a gymnastics academy in Silkeborg, Denmark with the intention of becoming a physical education teacher. However, her studies were cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War when Germany invaded Denmark. She returned to South Africa and found work at a shipping firm in Durban.

While working, she did courses in ballet and ballet instruction, as well as Spanish dancing. In Durban she met and married Hymie Ossher, a soldier stationed in Durban at the time. They moved to Johannesburg and opened a clothing business there. After a few years there an opportunity arose to enter a partnership in a general dealership in Jansenville, where she worked as the secretary while raising two sons, Jonathan and (?). Leisure time was limited, but she managed to get in a lot of tennis, featuring prominently in club championships and organising the annual Karoo championships. She also played a little golf. Over the years she taught ballet, and did a little tennis coaching of children. She was appointed as the local correspondent for the Eastern Province Herald.

She helped with the founding of the amateur dramatic society, and produced several variety shows in support of the local hospital, playing active parts both off- and on stage where her skill as a Spanish dancer became legendary.

All of these shows played to full houses on multiple nights, these being highlights of entertainment in those pre-TV years. A couple of the shows visited Steytlerville and Willowmore. Adèle was an enthusiastic participant in the production of these shows and roped in many local residents who contributed their skills. These volunteers took care of the lighting, the stitching of elaborate costumes and construction of the scenery, etc. None of these skills were known beforeand in platteland productions.

When she and Hymie retired they moved to Port Elizabeth, where Adèle played tennis well into her sixties. She then took up bowls and completed courses in umpiring and coaching. She served for many years as President of SANTA (South African National Tuberculosis Association) and served on the National Executive. For her SANTA efforts she won awards such as a Rotary Merit Award, the Rotary Sir Rufane Donkin Award, and was a nominee for the PE Citizen of the Year Award.

The showbiz bug did not desert her entirely in PE, despite advancing age and competing interests, for she still managed to produce a comedy for a charity group with which she was involved. At the age of 95 she was still active on the bowling green but gradually her health declined and she died in 2019, three weeks shy of her 99th birthday. The words "A useful citizen" appear on her grave.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Adèle Ossher was one of the founding members of the Jansenville Drama Vereniging which was founded in around the rural town of Jansenville in the Eastern Cape, on May 14, 1959.