Dricky Beukes

Dricky Beukes (1918–1999) was an author of Afrikaans novels, short stories and radio dramas.

Biography

Born Hendrika Johanna van Staden on the farm Seekoebaard in Prieska, Northern Cape, on 29 December 1918, the youngest of 13 children. When she was three the family to moved to Karos, a small town near Upington, where she grew up and received her early school education. She matriculated from the Higher Business School in Paarl and took up a job at the Karos Post Office after writing her Public Service Examination.

She married Abraham Opperman Beukes of Prince Albert on July 4, 1942. He was the first principal of Laerskool Vredelust in Bellville, and also an author of children's books. The couple had a son, Van Staden, and two daughters Brenda and Wilmari. In Bellville, Beukes was the editor for a small newspaper called Die Noordwester and a regular contributor to the Oudtshoorn Courant. After retirement, the couple settled in Tygerberg in Bellville.

Beukes’ husband died in Durbanville in March 1993 and she herself in Bellville on 9 November 1999.

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

Though mainly an author of love stories, she also wrote a number of radio dramas for the SABC, including Die Indringer, Skaduwees oor Summerdown, Blinkwater, Die Geel Karavaan and Dokter Karenien. A number of them also published in prose form.