Elizabeth Rose te Groen, M.D.

Elizabeth Rose te Groen, a pathbreaking scholar, dedicated physician, inspiring matriarch and beloved community figure, died peacefully in the early morning hours of June 2, 2025 at the age of 101. 

 

She was born Elizabeth Frances Rose on May 18, 1924 in Germiston, South Africa, the fourth and youngest child of Arthur Francis Rose and Beatrice Dale Ellis. She spent most of her early childhood near what is now Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. For the rest of her life, she fondly remembered spotting elephant tracks on her many treks exploring the bush near the family’s farm.

 

She was only four years old when she informed her family that she would become a doctor, despite the fact that only a handful of South African women had ever practiced as registered physicians. Fortunately, both her father, an American mining engineer, and her mother, a formidable Victorian lady and Boer War survivor, believed passionately in the value of education for girls as well as boys. Elizabeth attended convent school at St. Dominic’s Priory in Port Elizabeth, then enrolled at Rhodes University in Grahamstown at the age of just 16. 

 

She earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and zoology and went on to medical school at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, where she was one of about five women in a class of 120 students. At Wits, she met a classmate from Pretoria named Lutherus te Groen. The couple married in 1949 after graduating from medical school, and moved into a Johannesburg flat so small they had to move the table out to make room when guests arrived. They would go on to have five children: Jeanette, Marie, Peter, Frans and Susan.

 

Though Elizabeth originally planned to practice psychology, women at that time were discouraged from working in the country’s mental hospitals. She instead became a surgeon in Johannesburg, and later an outpatient and emergency medicine doctor in Pretoria. When the family moved to East London, she took a job in a pathology laboratory. It was there she noticed an alarming spike in esophageal cancer cases that appeared to cluster in parts of the city with high levels of bootlegging activity. Investigation revealed that a local unlicensed brewer was using barrels containing tar and other carcinogenic compounds, inadvertently sickening customers. 

 

This was the beginning of her long and productive interest in the link between cancer, diet and nutrition. With a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health she undertook an epidemiological survey of cancer rates and nutritional patterns in Xhosa communities, conducting some of the earliest modern research on the relationship between nutrition and cancer. She published dozens of papers on the subject over five decades, traveled the world as a lecturer and educator, and was named as co-author in medical journal articles into her late 80s.

 

Upon their retirement, Elizabeth and Loet sailed for several years around the world before landing in the United States, where all five of their children eventually emigrated. The couple settled in Newburg, Missouri, whose rural setting evoked for Elizabeth warm memories of her childhood home. Dr. Lutherus te Groen passed away in 2005, after 56 years of marriage. 

 

In 2007, at the age of 83, she edited and shepherded to publication her late sister Jane’s book Against the Tide, a history of women in the Anglo-Boer War. In 2008, she created the Newburg Children’s Museum, a natural history museum and educational facility dedicated to serving local families. Like its founder, the museum became an important and beloved part of the community. Many of the first children who came to marvel at Elizabeth’s collections are now parents who bring their own children to play and learn there. 

 

She was the heart of a large family that stretched across the United States, encompassing five children, nine grandchildren, and four (and counting!) great-grandchildren. Her family treasured her entertaining company, wisdom, and creative problem-solving. She was the kind of grandma who would happily spray-paint an antique serving platter green if it would make a good shell for a grandson’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, and who delighted in stories of her loved ones’ adventures and successes.

 

As interesting as this remarkable woman was, her defining quality — perhaps even her most impressive one — was that for a full century, she remained endlessly interested in the people, places and ideas she encountered. She never stopped learning, never stopped asking questions, never lost interest in studying and debating science, art, and philosophy. In the last days of her life she finished her final book manuscript, a treatise on South Africa’s medicinal plants. 

 

To know Elizabeth was to witness what it means to live life well and fully: To care for your family. To immerse yourself in your community. To be curious without judgment, delighted by new discoveries, and fully engaged with life’s biggest questions. To hold always a sense of pure, childlike awe for this magnificent world we find ourselves in, seasoned over time with experience and perspective. 

 

She was predeceased by her parents Arthur and Beatrice Dale Rose, siblings John, Helvina and Jane, and son-in-law Gavin Barton. She is survived by her children Jenny Kinsey (Mike), Marie Barton, Peter (Peggy), Frans (Lindsay) and Susan Striepe (Volker); grandchildren Jon Kinsey, Jennifer Wooten (Ben), Justin Barton (Corinne), Alan te Groen (Hannah), Thomas te Groen (Marlese), Katherine te Groen, Max Striepe (Cory), Nicole Striepe, and Chantal Striepe (Kevin); great-grandchildren Elizabeth Rose Barton, Ryan Gavin Barton, Alina Zhang and Rosalie te Groen; and a wide network of nieces, nephews, loved ones and friends. 

 

Those of us lucky enough to know and miss this remarkable woman can take some comfort in knowing that her passing from this world marks the start of an extraordinary journey in the next. Before Loet’s death twenty years ago, the couple made plans to travel the universe once they were both on the other side, exploring together the finest quasars and nebulas that deep space has to offer. As they begin their adventure, let us say: thank you Miss Elizabeth, Beth, Mom, Ouma, Nene, for your love, wisdom, and inspiring example. You will be loved and remembered always.