Jo (Joanna Everharde) Fourie (1884-1973) was born in Zwolle, The Netherlands. In 1920 she married H.C.M. Fourie, a theological student, and shortly thereafter they moved to South Africa where she would spend the rest of her life. Jo loved music, and when she did not play the church organ, she took piano lessons, and participated in philharmonic choirs.
While visiting some family in Java (in 1934) she managed to listen in on a radio program from South Africa playing some early Afrikaner music. Upon her return she started to document all such tunes she could find, and formed her own band playing these melodies. After her husband's death in 1039, she and her children moved to Johannesburg where she continued her activities in collecting and playing traditional Afrikaner music. By the time of her death she had collected and documented almost 1,000 traditional pieces.
Soon she had the rest of her household participating, and their music caught the attention of Pieter de Waal of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This landed the family a regular spot in a bi-weekly radio program.
