Nonagenarian reflects on her colourful life
Fashionable Lee Weibel (92) has led a remarkable life.
POLOKWANE – Seated in her exquisitely-furnished home in the mountains outside Haenertsburg, Weibel talks to Review about her travels, her loves and her career in fashion.
She was born in Cape Town on 17 February 1924. When WW II broke out, the family relocated to Pretoria as Weibel’s stepfather was a major in the armoured car division.
Weibel married an Irishman, Roy Irwin, at the tender age of 18. He left to serve in the British army immediately after and did not return until three years later, at the end of World War II.
The couple never stayed in one place for long as Roy was still an active soldier in the British army. Not long after his return, the couple went to Durban where they boarded a troop ship transporting Italian prisoners of war, and sailed to Naples.
A train then took the couple to the village of Villach in Austria where they lived for 13 months.
The Russians had left their army horses behind and Weibel delighted in riding these fine creatures.
They returned to England to wait for the next posting to India. Today, India is the country Weibel regards as the best place in the world. This despite her initial introduction to India when she was grilled for three hours by the local police upon her arrival.
Being a South African, she was regarded as an undesirable immigrant.
Fortunately her husband, by that time a major, arrived at the station with an Indian major and she was released.
The couple lived on a houseboat in Kashmir (today’s Pakistan). Due to constant riots and unrest, the couple had to leave the area and travelled to Hong Kong where they lived for more than a year. The couple’s late son, Michael, was born there.
Due to further trouble in the Far East, the regiment wives were advised to return to the UK and Weibel returned to the country of her birth. On her way she stopped over in Singapore and stayed at the fabled Raffles Hotel.
As their marriage was suffering under the strain of constant relocation, the couple divorced when Lee was only 25.
She relocated to Port Elizabeth to keep her now married sister company.
There she met and married John Jennings, the father of her two daughters, Astrid Botha and Terry Morgan.
Her second marriage also ended in divorce and Lee later married the much older Fritz Kleeman.
Two years into their marriage, Kleeman died from a burst oesophagus. She resolved to never marry again, at least not until she met Swiss national, Albert Weibel.
The couple were happily married for 20 years until the death of Albert, who had a heart attack and died while playing tennis at Wanderers in Johannesburg.
She’d never worked in her youth but at the age of 30, Weibel turned to her mother for career advice. Her mother advised her to model as she had a stunning figure and posture.
Weibel appeared in advertisements and on fashion ramps. She even modelled for the Queen of England’s dressmaker, Victor Stiebel, when he came to South Africa.
When she felt she was getting too old for modelling, Weibel approached the five directors at Weil and Ascheim, a huge firm in charge of cameo hosiery.
She was sent on a special course and became proficient at making speeches and giving presentations and arranged promotions. Weibel had her own business in Small Street in downtown Johannesburg. She was a manufacturer’s representative and had a range of clothing with a showroom. She lived close to her sister and brother-in-law’s business, the once famous Danish Confectionery.
When Albert died in 1990, she moved to Haenertsburg to be closer to her daughters.
She continued to work seasons in the fashion industry for several more years.
Review asked the nonagenarian her secret to longevity, she says she doesn’t drink alcohol but indulges in many other guilty pleasures.
”I never exercise and love sweets, cakes and breads. I’ve only been really ill once when diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer in 2000. The chemotherapy nearly killed me but I pulled through. I have arthritic pains and am hard of hearing. However, my eyesight is excellent and I renewed my driver’s licence with no problem this year. So I still drive, play bridge, read a lot, crochet, and I love going out and keeping myself busy.”
