Natalie Newton Macdonald Ferry. Natalie, called Nanny by her friends and family, was born February 8, 1917 and passed on from complications following a fall on November 8, 2000. She was married 47 years to James Henry Ferry Jr., who passed on in 1989. She is survived by a brother Malcolm Ranald Macdonald of Prospect Heights, IL; a son, James Henry Ferry, III (Barbara) of Glencoe, IL and daughter Julia Ferry Littlefield of Hotchkiss, CO, whose families include three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Nanny came to Glencoe from Wayzata, MN with her family in October 1929, attending Central school and then New Trier High School. In 1933 she spent the summer as a sailing counselor at Camp Ketchuwa in the upper peninsula of Michigan, run by Dr. Helen Ross, a student of Sigmund Freud and a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, who had a lasting influence on the then sixteen-year-old girl. In 1936-37 she attended Pine Manor Junior College, followed by a year at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where she was a member of the Alpha Phi Sorority. She was always maintained that her study of photography and journalism helped her throughout her life to find the sources and “get to the bottom of things”. Following schooling in 1939, Nanny took a job in Best & Company’s Lilliputian Bazaar in Winnetka and saved her salary to take a ski trip with friends to Sun Valley, ID which had recently opened. James Ferry followed her on that trip and proposed while they enjoyed a moonlit dogsled ride and dinner at a remote cabin. In 1942 Nanny married James, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate in Electrical Engineering, in the Chapel of Trinity Church in Highland Park. Twin daughters, Pamela and Julia, were born in 1944 and a son, James, was born in 1950. Nanny can be remembered for her love of children and deep loyalty to her husband and family. Her object in family life was “to make life pleasant for those near and dear to me”. Nanny was a Trustee of Pine Manor College 1975-85, when she became an Emeritus Trustee. She was President of the Glencoe Girl Scout Council and Leader of Troop 15 for five years in the 1950s. She was a member of the University Club of Chicago, Skokie Country Club, the Women’s Athletic Club of Chicago and the Wausaukee Club. She was a life member of the Chicago Symphony, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History. Two of the highlights of her life were an African photographic safari with Richard Leakey in 1965 and her association with Hank Kupjack, who built the Thorne Miniature Rooms on display at the Art Institute as well as two rooms for her. Nanny was a good wife and mother and a determined champion of good taste and right endeavor. She will be sorely missed by her family and friends. A memorial service will be held at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Glencoe at 2 p.m. on Friday, November 17. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Little House of Glencoe, c/o Glencoe Park District, 999 Green Bay Road, Glencoe, IL 60022. Arrangements by Wm. H. Scott Funeral Home, 847-251-8200.
