Natalie Matheson

Natalie M. Matheson
April 2, 1942 – November 29, 2025
Natalie Matheson died peacefully the afternoon of Saturday, November 29, 2025, she was 83 years old.
Natalie was born in Worcester, MA, to Henry Chester "Chet" & Barbara Keck Smith, and was their only child. She grew up in nearby Boylston, on the family-owned dairy farm on property near the Old Bay Path. She grew up in a large house built in in the 1890s that once served as a nursing home but was later converted into a two-apartment home, with Natalie's maternal grandparents, William and Maude Keck in the smaller apartment. The family owned many acres of land, with a large barn that housed Rocky the bull. She grew up with dogs, geese, barn cats and milking cows (who would get drunk from fermented apples on the ground and come running home, udders swinging, squirting milk at each gallop).
Later, the dairy farm was dissolved and the barn converted into Bay Path Barn (where events are still held today), a square dance hall where Chet and Barbara held round and square dance classes, and hosted a variety of notable square dance callers from around the country.
After Natalie graduated from Bancroft School, she attended Boston University, and later transferred to Michigan State University, where she earned her Master's in Music. There she met her future husband, William (Bill), and they later married.
In 1964, Natalie gave birth to their only child, Barbara, and the young family moved into the home Bill and Natalie would occupy for nearly the rest of their lives. Bill landed a job as Chief Engineer at Dart Container in Mason, MI, and Natalie was a stay-at-home mother to Barbara, until Bill developed an ulcer and resigned in the early 70s. It was then, that Bill and Natalie began a new chapter.
They first embarked on making a documentary film about Hell's Canyon between the borders of Idaho and Oregon. However the money ran out, so they worked a wide variety of jobs, from delivering phone books (remember those?), to filming MSU football & basketball games for football coaches Darryl Rogers to George Perles, and basketball coach Judd Heathcote. Natalie landed a job at Palmer Bush Funeral Home as a secretary, then moved on to Hi-Fi Buys, a high-end high-fidelity stereo shop, as bookkeeper. As Hi-Fi Buys needed advertising, Bill, with his background in advertising, wrote and designed ads for newspapers and other print media.
Eventually Bill & Natalie purchased their own equipment, and Adventures with Nature (the documentary-making company) became a typesetting company, with Natalie teaching herself how to typeset, and Bill brushing up on his paste-up and stat camera skills.
From there the business grew, added employees (including daughter Barbara for 10 years) and eventually evolved into a service bureau, and then finally a design firm and service bureau as the desktop design industry became the new norm.
As the film imaging and design industry changed, Bill and Natalie sold off much of their equipment and retired. They spent most winters at home in East Lansing, and most summers on their property in Manton, just north of Cadillac, MI, as it was their favorite place to nature watch and chat with local friends nearby. They continued this until they were no longer able to make the trek after 2023, as their health began to decline.
The following spring they moved to a senior living facility in Haslett, with their apartment overlooking a pond that attracts deer, turtles, rabbits, squirrels and sandhill cranes. It didn't take long for the local critters to figure out that Natalie was putting food out for them, and they became regular visitors that she and Bill enjoyed very much.
Natalie is preceded in death by her parents Henry Chester & Barbara (Keck) Smith, and husband William Derr Matheson. She is survived by daughter Barbara Matheson (Jim Pierce).
In keeping with Natalie's wishes, no services will be held.