Donkey Sanctuary founder Elisabeth Svendsen, 81
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Elisabeth Svendsen, 81, founder of The Donkey Sanctuary,
died of a stroke on May 11, 2011 in Exeter, England. She appeared
to be “the picture of health” two days earlier, said Donkey
Sanctuary chief executive David Cook, when she gave the closing
speech at Donkey Week, celebrated at the Donkey Sanctuary
headquarters in east Devon.
Born Elisabeth Knowles in York-shire, “She became enamored
of donkeys when she was a girl,” wrote Emma Brown of the Washington
Post. “She worked as a teacher and a secretary before she and her
husband Niels started a family. They devised a dryer for baby
diapers, sold their invention to a manufacturer, and bought the
Salston Hotel at Ottery St. Mary in Devon.”