The Life And Times Of Joy Adamson Quiz

Answer: Friederike Viktoria Gessner

Joy Adamson was born Friederike Viktoria Gessner on January 20, 1910, but her family called her 'Fifi,' as did her first husband, Victor von Klarwill. During her early years, she learned the piano, and her family thought that one day she would be world famous as a concert pianist.

However, Joy was not interested in becoming a concert pianist, much to her family's dismay. She was more interested in painting, drawing, and dressmaking. When Joy neared the age of eighteen, she became interested in archaeology and medicine, but unfortunately, she did not qualify for the university in which she applied.

In 1935, when she was 25 years old, Joy met and married Victor von Klarwill. Joy always wanted a child, and when she discovered that she was pregnant, she was thrilled. Sadly, she miscarried in the first trimester.

Answer: Peter Bally

In 1937, while traveling by boat to Mombasa, Joy, still married to Victor von Klarwill, met Peter Bally, a botanist. They were instantly attracted to each other and fell in love. Bally insisted on calling her 'Joy,' for two reasons. The first being because her birth name was so hard to pronounce, and he didn't like the nickname, 'Fifi.' The second reason being was because she was the 'joy' of his life.

When Klarwill arrived in Kenya, Joy told him about Bally and asked him for a divorce. Klarwill acquiesced, and the two were divorced a few months later, although they remained on friendly terms.

In 1938, Joy and Peter Bally were married, and once again Joy found herself pregnant within their first year of marriage. But sadly, once again, she miscarried in the first trimester. On a trip back to Austria, Joy asked a fortune teller two questions: 'First, will I continue to live where I do at present? Secondly, will I have children?'.

The sooth-sayer proclaimed that she would live in the tropics, and that she would have to brush up on her English.

The fortune teller also said that she would never have any children. Upon returning to Kenya and to Bally, Joy found out that she was pregnant once again. However, like her previous two pregnancies, she miscarried in the first trimester. Joy never again became pregnant. While married to Bally, Joy painted over 700 different kinds of flowers and trees, while she accompanied him on safaris to Chyulu Hills and Kilimanjaro. Her paintings were at the request of botanical magazines, and have become extremely famous, more so since her death in 1980.

Answer: George Adamson

In 1942, Joy met British Game Warden, George Adamson, at a Christmas party in Garissa. Joy arrived at the party with her husband, Peter Bally, although by this time the two realized that their marriage was basically over. During the party, and with too much to drink, George and Joy told each other how they felt toward one another. George was leery of enticing the married Joy, and didn't know what to do.

The two started dancing with each other, and the next morning they found themselves together in bed. Joy, who didn't have as much to drink as George, remembered the evening very well.

She honestly told him that nothing happened between them, and that her dress was ripped on barbed wire. Considering the fact that when George woke up he was fully dressed, he believed her.

He was shocked when the Ballys told him that he had invited them on the camel safari. George didn't think that Joy had the stamina for the safari, and tried to talk them out of it, but the Ballys insisted on going. During the many days and nights out in the bush, Joy and George fell more in love.

When George learned that Peter Bally knew about Joy's feelings for him, he felt guilty. But when Peter told him that their marriage was basically over, and that he was all for them, George felt better. Joy and Peter filed for divorce, but it would take almost a year for the divorce to go through. During that year, Joy was living on Mount Kenya, and George visited her and wrote her often. In 1943, after Joy's and Peter's divorce became final, Joy and George were married. They were married in the office of the District Commissioner of Kenya. It was a simple wedding on African soil, of an Irishman, who was born in India, to an Austrian, who was leaving a Swiss. They were both penniless. After the marriage, George and Joy moved to Isiolo, a small village in the Northern Frontier Province.

Answer: Kenya National Museum

In 1948, several hundred of Joy's paintings of the flora of Africa were exhibited in London by the Royal Horticultural Society. She was also awarded the Grenfell Gold Medal. Also in 1948, 'Geographical Magazine' published Joy's photographs and sketches of her ivory chess set, along with several of her flora paintings.

In 1949, she was commissioned by the Kenyan government to paint twenty of its dwindling tribes. It took several years, but by 1955, she finished the paintings. When she died in 1980, the Kenyan government hung them with pride in the State House, and in 1995, they were moved to the Kenya National Museum.

Answer: Elsa was the name of Bally's grandmother

In 1956, George Adamson, along with life-long friend, Ken Smith, were on the trail of a man-eating lion, when they came across a lioness who charged at them. Fearing for their safety, George shot and killed the lioness, only to discover that she was nursing.

He ordered a search of the immediate area, and discovered the three tiny, and by now orphaned, cubs. Knowing his wife's passion for animals, he immediately brought the three cubs to her. The cubs were all female, and Joy named them The Big One, Lustica, and Elsa.

She named Elsa after Peter Bally's grandmother. Joy and George agreed that they could not keep all three cubs, so they decided to send the two bigger cubs to the Rotterdam Zoo, but they kept Elsa. From the beginning, Joy and George decided that they would one day return Elsa to her wild state, and in 1958, began on the journey that would change their lives. To show Elsa's progress, they kept an 8 mm record of her rehabilitation, and were able to capture Elsa's shining moment, when she single handedly brought down a 1,000 pound water buffalo. On December 20, 1959, Elsa gave birth to three cubs. Joy named them Jespah, Gopa, and Little Elsa. Sadly, on January 24, 1961, when the cubs were a little over a year old, Elsa passed away.

The cause of her death was a blood disease, called Babesia Felis. Since Elsa's death, and until her own death, Joy always claimed that Elsa's spirit was guiding her.

Answer: Pippa

In September of 1961, Major and Mrs. Dunkey asked Joy if she would take charge of their pet cheetah, Kitten. Joy, who missed Elsa very much, and who wanted to compare a cheetah with lion, agreed to take Kitten. Upon accepting Kitten, Joy changed her name to Pippa, as it would be easier to call over a long distance.

The first stop on Joy's agenda was Mount Kenya, where Columbia Pictures was filming the movie "Born Free." Joy took up camp away from the Simba Camp, which was housing the lions used in the filming.

The filming was completed almost two years after it started, and when the filming ended, Joy brought Pippa to the Meru National Reserve, which is now a National Park. Her camp was located near Leopard Rock, and she was able to keep a small herd of goats, in which to feed Pippa, until Pippa learned how to hunt on her own. Joy was with Pippa when she gave birth to four different litters, and she was there the day Pippa died at the Nairobi Orphanage, where she was brought when she was found with a severely broken leg.

The medicines that helped ease Pippa's pain, eventually overcame her and she passed away while Joy held her. After Pippa's death, Joy feared for the life of Pippa's fourth litter, who were barely a year old. She asked the County Council of the Meru National Reserve if she could stay on to take care of Pippa's fourth litter, but amazingly, her request was denied. A year after Pippa died, Joy was asked if she would like to take charge of two orphaned leopard cubs, and she jumped at the chance to be able to compare leopards with lions and cheetahs. Sadly, while on her way to get the cubs, she was in a car accident. She survived, but her right hand was mangled. Joy needed several operations to restore her hand to its former self, but unfortunately for Joy, she had to let her opportunity with the leopard cubs slip through her fingers. It would take several more years, but she would finally get the leopard cub she so badly wanted.

Answer: Elsa Wild Animal Appeal

In 1961, Joy founded The Elsa Wild Animal Appeal. She founded this non profit organization to help wild animals all over the world, in Elsa's name. Today, this organization, which came from one woman's hopes that there would always be a place for wild animals, has over 30 chapters world wide. From 1961 and until her death, Joy traveled the globe and gave lectures and speeches about her time with Elsa and Pippa.

Answer: Elsamere

In 1965, Joy purchased a house on Lake Naivasha, which she called Elsamere, where she hoped she and George would live for the remainder of their lives. However, it was only a dream, because the two never spent much time in the house, preferring to live in the bush. Also, in 1965, Joy founded The Elsa Conservation Trust, a non profit organization specifically for Kenya.

When Joy died, Elsamere was entrusted to The Elsa Conservation Trust. Since the time of her death, Elsamere is a conservation center, where people, wishing to learn about conservation and wildlife, go to live for a while until they learn what they wish to learn.

The area around Elsamere, called Hell's Gates, which was acquired a few years after Elsamere, is now protected land.

Answer: Penny

On November 11, 1976, Joy's dream of being able to compare a leopard with a lion and a leopard were fulfilled. Joy and a friend of hers, Juliette Huxley, decided to go on a short safari to Lake Nakuru. While there, the car became stuck in mud, and a few hours later, they were rescued by two rangers, who pulled them out of the mud.

While talking to the rangers, Joy learned that there was an abandoned female leopard cub, and after talking to the Divisional Game Warden, Joy was able to bring the tiny cub to Elsamere.

She changed Jenny's name to Penny, and set out on her dreams to rehabilitate Penny to the wild. In 1978, when Penny was about 18 months old, Joy brought her to the Shaba National Reserve, which is now a National Park. From 1978 to 1980, Joy recorded and photographed every stage of Penny's return to the wild.

In 1979, she began writing a book about Penny, entitled "The Queen Of Shaba: The Story Of An African Leopard." The book details every aspect of Penny's rehabilitation to the wild, the birth of her cubs, and the camp fire which nearly claimed Joy's life.

This was the last book Joy was to write.

Answer: Paul Ekai

On the evening of January 3, 1980, Joy had gone for her nightly walk, at about 6:30 pm. When she wasn't back by 7:00 pm, Pieter Mawson and Kifosha, the cook, became worried. By 7:15 pm it was quite dark, and to light the way, Kifosha lit all the lamps in the camp. Meanwhile Pieter, went out looking for her along the track she always took. Two hundred yards from the main camp, he found her body, lying on the road in a pool of blood. Pieter went back to camp and collected Kifosha, and together they examined her body.

They both felt that she was attacked by a lion, but a coroner's inquest would prove otherwise. In fact, Joy was murdered by Paul Ekai, a Turkana whom she fired. Ekai confessed to the murder about a month later. His reason was that he was incensed that when Joy fired him, she did not pay him the full wages due to him. On October 28, 1981, Ekai was convicted of her murder. Because no one knew Ekai's exact age, he was spared the death sentence. Joy's body was cremated and some of her ashes were buried next Pippa's grave, and the rest were buried next to Elsa's grave. Joy Adamson is the author of "Born Free," "Living Free," "Forever Free," "The Spotted Sphinx," "Pippa's Challenge," "The Searching Spirit," and "The Queen Of Shaba." All information can be found in the above mentioned books.