rest in peace madame la rochelle

By Jerome Camt (Club Simplyblue)

On 17 May 1964 – In a small town called Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape a Star was born.
Russel Phore moved as a little child to Windhoek – Namibia where he grew up and later at the age of 28 moved to Johannesburg in 1992.

This is where Russel lived for the rest of his life. During his early life in Johannesburg Russel was known as Rochelle to his friends and later he helped form a drag group called the Pussy Cats along with the late Leoness and late Rachel.

After the demise of both Rachel and Leoness – La Rochelle was driven by her passion for the stage that she re-invented herself as Madame La Rochelle.
She was then a little older and a little wiser.

When Simply Blue was conceived the owners approached Madame La Rochelle to be the face of the club, a position and a status she gladly accepted.

Madame worked effortlessly in ensuring Simply Blue’s success considering that a Black owned gay club was unheard of – so as you can imagine we had our work cut out for us.

5 years later Simply Blue is still successful and has broken so many barriers and stigmas and still has to go on, minus Madame.

It is indeed for this very reason that we have launched a new dynamic drag group called the Blue Belle’s, all in memory of Madame La Rochelle.

The Blue Belle’s are made up of Brooke Logan (a protégé’ of Madame herself), Lala and Foxy (Miss Simply Blue 2008)

Madame was cremated in a beautiful, solemn and well attended ceremony on Monday 05 January 2009.
 
Her ashes will be returned to Namibia where her mother and sister live and will be buried in an official funeral at the end of January 2009.

A good indication of what Madame was about is to be found in this message we received from an individual known as Miss Tilly and it reads :
“To friends and family of Madame La Rochelle – She was a great leader to all of us and a best friend and a role model to all of us. She spread lots of happiness and love to everyone because she was sincere and always willing to wipe away a tear to bring joy and share a smile with anyone in the club. God Bless and let Madame rest in Peace. “

With these words we too at Simply Blue say Thank You Madame and may you and all the other before you rest in Peace.