Name Betty Leslie-Melville | ||
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Died September 23, 2005, Balti, Maryland, United States Books Raising Daisy Rothschild, Daisy Rothschild | ||
Betty Leslie-Melville (née McDonnell) (March 7, 1927 – September 23, 2005) was an American born author and conservationist.
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Early life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of a Doctor, Leslie-Melville attended Johns Hopkins University.
Family life
Leslie-Melville married Jock Leslie-Melville in 1964.,
She was instrumental in creating sanctuaries to preserve the subspecies of the Rothschild's giraffe in Kenya. Often called the "Giraffe Lady", she spent much of her life living and working in Kenya protecting and caring for the Rothschild's giraffe population there, primarily through a breeding programme established at her residence, Giraffe Manor. During her time working there, the Rothschild's giraffe population grew from about one hundred twenty to over four hundred.
Along with her husband Jock Leslie-Melville and their adopted giraffe Daisy, they were the subject of the film The Last Giraffe (1979) with Susan Anspach playing Betty.
As part of their fund-raising efforts, Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville collaborated on a series of books about animals, most of them characterized by Betty's rather breathless style. Raising Daisy Rothschild (1977) "the story of two delightful young people and how they raised and grew to love a young giraffe... or two" became a best-seller. More animal stories followed: Elephant Have Right of Way (1973), There's a Rhino in the Rose Bed, Mother (1973), That Nairobi Affair (1975) and Walter Warthog (1989), a children's story about the tame warthog they named after their friend Walter Cronkite, the CBS news anchorman. The books helped to raise more funds for the Giraffe Centre they set up at Langata, Kenya in 1983.