Natalie Schoonmaker Hasbrook
Natalie Margaret Schoonmaker Hasbrook, circa 1937-1938
Source: Cynthia Hasbrook
Natalie was born in Chicago, Illinois, May 13, 1917, to Bertha Alvina Miller Schoonmaker and Charles Frederick Schoonmaker. She attended St. Agnes School in West Virginia. After
graduating in 1935, Natalie attended the Stewart School of Design in Washington, D.C. In the late 1930s she worked as a dress designer in New York City at Montaldos, a lady’s specialty shop that was groundbreaking in women’s ready-to-wear clothing. It was during her employment at Montaldos that she created the watercolor dress designs now housed in the Mount Mary University Fashion Department. These designs were likely prepared at the request of her superior for review and consideration as possible dress designs the company might create.
Natalie went on to marry Neal Caren Hasbrook in 1941; move to Palo Alto, California, in 1949; and raise twin children. For several years, she continued to paint watercolors and design and sew clothes for her children. In the 1960s and '70s she turned her attention to a children's guild in Palo Alto, serving children with special needs, as a fundraiser. In later years, she often traveled to visit her daughter in Wisconsin where she fell in love with the Door County Peninsula. She passed on in December 1999.
Source: Cynthia Hasbrook
