NASHVILLE – The Country Music Association recently bestowed posthumous honors to the family of beloved international journalist Rineke Van Beek with the presentation of the Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award.
The presentation was made Aug. 20 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by CMA Director of International Relations Bobbi Boyce. The award was presented Van Beek’s husband, Leo Van Beek; Rineke Van Beek’s mother Hennie Koert, and close friends Ruud Kegel of Nashville FM, and Jack Gerssen.
Rineke Van Beek, who passed away in 2011 after a brave battle with cancer, worked in the Country Music industry in the Netherlands for more than 25 years. As the International Director for Country Gazette magazine for more than two decades she contributed to its success until the magazine ceased publication. She went on to work at Nashville FM where she worked closely with Kegel mainly focusing on website content.
She was known throughout the Netherlands, and beyond, as an ambassador for Country Music and her loss was felt throughout the industry both in the Netherlands and Nashville, where she was admired by the artists and publicist community. She was a frequent visitor to Nashville, taking tour groups to the CMA Music Festival and covering the CMA Awards, in addition to other industry events.
On behalf of Rineke’s family, Leo Van Beek said, “Thank you again for this lovely surprise although it comes with mixed feelings. But we love to hear that Rineke is not forgotten. For Rineke, Nashville was always her second home. Every time she came to Nashville she said, ‘I have come home.’ She felt that she was a part of the music industry family and for her, everybody was part of her family – the people in the industry, the CMA, the artists, the musicians. She loved everybody.”
The Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievements in the media, which contribute to the development of Country Music outside the United States. Radio, TV, print journalists, authors, editors, television writers, producers and PR companies who reside outside the United States are eligible to win this award.
For Rineke Van Beek, “the reward for all her hard work was always the interviews with the artists and she was always thinking about the people who made it possible because those people did all the work for her,” said her husband. “Thank you to CMA for this lovely surprise.”