Hallie Nathalie Pennington

Hallie Nathalie Pennington, 86, resident of Lawrenceburg, died Monday, May 5, 2008 at NHC Columbia. A memorial service will be conducted at 11 a.m., Friday, May 9, 2008 at First United Methodist Church with Rev. Fred Harper officiating. Interment will be at a later date in the Henryville Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Firs United Methodist Church, 222 West 7th St., Columbia, TN 38401. Notes of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.oakesandnichols.com. The Lawrence County native was the daughter of the late Richard Allen Pennington and Viola Woodard Pennington. She completed her elementary education in the Henryville public schools and graduated from Summertown High School in 1940. She concluded a post-graduate secretarial course at Andrew Jackson Business College in Nashville. After working ten years at Salant & Salant she entered Martin College in Pulaski in 1949, earning the Associate of Arts degree in June of 1951. She continued her education at Scarritt College (then Scarritt College for Christian Workers) and received the B.A. degree in 1954 with a major in Bible and a minor in Religious Education. She was recruited by the Women's Division of the Methodist Church as an LA-3 missionary at Instituto Crandon in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she was Academic Dean of the junior college section for the traditional three-year period and part of the next academic year. From October 1958 to February 1959 she attended the Seventh Graduate School of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in Celigny, Switzerland near Geneva. In 1961 she received the Master of Arts degree from the College of Education of Syracuse University in the Student Dean program. She served with the United Church of Christ as the American principal of the Classical Gymnasium for Greek Girls in Athens, Greece from 1963 - 1966 after which she returned to the United States and became a member of the Dean of Women's Staff at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for an interim appointment. After serving as Assistant Dean of Students at Randolph-Macon in Lynchburg, Virginia, she was Dean of Student Affairs at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. Returning to Nashville in 1974 as Registrar and Foreign Student Advisor at Scarritt College, she remained there until its closing. She moved to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee in 1996. In May 2000 she was inducted into Martin Methodist College's Hall of Distinction, which recognizes former students and others associated with the college who have made a unique contribution to society. Her recognition was based on her service to the Church and to the young women whose lives she touched. Nathalie felt richly blessed for her long life and often expressed heartfelt gratitude for all God's gifts and blessings in varied experiences, such as opportunities for education, travel and cultural advantages. She was thankful for the gift of wonderful faithful friends and colleagues along the way of her life-journey. Survivors include a brother, Jason Alfred Pennington and his wife, Doris Clark Pennington of Columbia and a number of nieces and nephews and their families. She was preceded in death by three brothers, William Gilbert Pennington, John Howard Pennington and Charles Nolen Pennington.