Natalie Marie Stewart passed away at her home in Heritage Village, Southbury, Connecticut on Thursday, June 25, 2020. Her husband, Mack W. Stewart, said cause of death was a recurrence of breast cancer she experienced thirty years ago. Natalie would have celebrated her 85th birthday on July 28.
Natalie was a native of Dallas, Texas, the daughter of Nathan Wohlfeld and Helen Coerver Wohlfeld. Her father was an immigrant from Poland who came through Ellis Island before it burned in 1888. Mr. Wohlfeld met his future wife in a hospital in Dallas in 1929 where he was a patient and she was his nurse.
Natalie was a graduate of Ursaline Academy in Dallas and attended Webster College in Webster Grove, Missouri. She and Mack met on a blind date in Dallas in 1954; they were married in 1957. During their sixty-three years of marriage they were blessed with four children. They lived in Texas, Indiana, and New York before moving to Connecticut in 1986.
Natalie was a dedicated tennis player. While living in Troy, New York in the 1970s, she served as president of the Troy Tennis Association. Upon moving to Higganum, Connecticut in 1990 she was an active member of the Old Saybrook Racquet Club.
Natalie was a full-time mother and home-maker who found time to help others. She delivered meals-on-wheels for twenty years. At her parish church in Higganum, Connecticut, she organized and managed a monthly food drive for the local food bank. She was an accomplished seamstress and quilter who sewed infant clothing for families who had lost their baby in childbirth.
When her husband founded Warm the Children (a program providing new winter clothing and footwear for a community’s neediest children) in Middletown, Connecticut in 1992, she managed the program as well as volunteered as a shopper. For the next twenty-six years, she continued as a volunteer shopper, helping families select warm clothing and footwear for their children.
Shortly after moving to Southbury in 2018, she volunteered to be a “friendly visitor,” a program at her parish church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It involved visiting a home-bound senior in their residence for an hour each week She did this until early 2020 when the pandemic halted all visits.
Natalie is survived by her husband, Mack; two brothers, Robert Wohlfeld and William Wohlfeld; three daughters, Mary (Andrew Tay), Amy Therese (Benjamin Ford), and Dianne Marie (Erik Holst-Grubbe); one son, Paul Gerard; and seven grandchildren; Safia Ziani (Bradley Chase); Nadia Ziani (Jeff Rosen), Adam Ziani, Peter Ford, Anna Ford, Nathan Holst-Grubbe and Sam Holst-Grubbe.
The family plans a private funeral mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and later a memorial service. In lieu of flowers, donations in Honor of Natalie Stewart, can be made to:
Warm the Children
Attn: Mary Stewart
2988 S. Foxridge Court
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Also:
The Sacred Heart Mustard Seed Fund
910 Main Street South
Southbury, CT 06488
