Eugènie was born in 1939 on Curaçao, an island in the Caribbean, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. When she was 8 years old (photo above) the family moved to Holland. They lived in the wooded surroundings of the village Ede in the eastern part of the country. There Eugènie had a marvellous, happy youth.
After finishing secondary school she got a job in The Hague with SHELL. After a few years she moved to Baarn, working at Philips Record Industry. In the meantime she had very interesting hobbies: acting, presenting radio programmes as an amateur, drawing, writing stories and poems.
Her great wish to work as a professional at a radio station was fulfilled in 1963, when she started as all-round presenter and journalist at De Wereldomroep, the Dutch World Service.
In 1965 she became famous in the Netherlands as the first female journalist presenting the daily news on Dutch television, as female anchor.
When she married and had children she had to stop this exciting work. She then studied speech therapy and after that she started her own practice. In the meantime she was asked to present some TV shows and she also became lady speaker for renowned fashion shows.
After her divorce, she started some years later with her second husband an office for PR, Promotion, Communication and Audio-visual concepts. Alas, 8 years later her husband died and the office was closed. After that she had her own business: Eugènie Herlaar Presentations.
She travelled a lot and gave lectures with projection of her own photographs about these tours; she was travel guide for the six isles of the Dutch Caribbean for a tour operator. Next to that she presented concerts and other cultural programmes.
She did a lot of volunteer work: as committee member of several cultural clubs and PR work for different foundations.
And next to all that she was also a painter and author of poems and stories. See The Art of Eugènie.
Eugènie Herlaar passed away on 14 August 2024.