Hancock and Ellsworth
Nancie Monteux Barendse, 96, died April 30, 2013 in Ellsworth. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 8, 1917 to Edward Purslow of Boston and Doris Hodgkins of Hancock, Maine.
She spent her childhood in Milton, Massachusetts and in Waldoboro, Maine. In 1924 she and her older brother, Donald, late of Hancock, relocated with their mother and stepfather, Pierre Monteux, near Waterloo, Belgium, south of Brussels. In Brussels she attended the Dalcroze School where she studied modern dance and later, ballet. In 1930 the family moved to Paris, France where Monteux conducted the Paris Symphony. In 1935 Nancie debuted as a dancer with the Orchestra Symphonique under her stepfather’s baton.
Later in that same year the family left France for San Francisco where Monteux had assumed the directorship of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Nancie’s American debut took place in Los Angeles also in 1935 dancing to programs by Bach, Schubert, Brahms and Debussy all with her father conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At home in San Francisco she had a variety of roles in theater and also as a night club singer at the Palace Hotel.
In the several years that followed Nancie pursued her career in entertainment, performing and socializing with friends and fellow professionals including violinist, Yehudi Menuhin and the columnist, Herb Caen as well as Merv Griffin with whom Nancie performed as a USO volunteer. Nancie preferred her singing voice to her speaking voice and though she auditioned for roles in theater and film it was modern dance and cabaret that she enjoyed more.
By this time Nancie had developed a serious interest in fashion and she began in earnest to sketch and fabricate her own costumes and clothes. This soon became a passion and in time her ambitions as a performing artist gave way to her interests in design and in the visual arts and literature. Though she had traveled widely and though she was bilingual and knew music and dance, a traditional education had eluded her and she now sought to make up for this.
In 1941 she met and married Simon Barendse of Paris, France. While her husband served in the U.S. Army, Nancy lived in the Washington D.C. area and then in Hancock. Over the next several years she had four sons and in 1946 the family moved to Westchester County from where her husband commuted to his new business in New York City.
Nancie and Simon purchased a summer home in Arlington, Vermont in the late 1950‘s and in 1960 the family moved full time to nearby Manchester, Vermont. There they opened a country inn which, in the course of a decade and aided by reviews in The New York Times and Holiday magazines, earned a loyal following.
In 1970, after ten years of inn keeping and with her children now on their own, Nancy left Vermont to take up her mother’s offer to return to Hancock to help with the music school founded by her stepfather. When Doris Monteux died in 1984 Nancie became director of the school. In the years she presided, the campus grew by several buildings including dormitories and cabins for students as well as a major renovation and expansion of the music hall. She retired in 2002.
Nancie was a voracious reader of biographies and mysteries. She also loved to travel (Russia, France many times and Italy) and she loved, as ever, entertaining. Invitations to her roast chicken suppers were highly sought.
Nancie leaves four sons, Pierre, Henry, Jan Paul and Robert and 4 grandchildren.
Arrangements in care of Jordan-Fernald, 113 Franklin Street, Ellsworth. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com
In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Nancie can be made to the Pierre Monteux School, P O Box 457, Hancock, ME 04640