Dennie LaTourelle was a bright star. The eldest daughter of liberal activist W.H. “Ping” Ferry and Jolyne Gillier Ferry, she combined her father’s commitment to positive change and her mother’s grace with her own special character to touch the lives of many people and make a difference wherever she went. Throughout her life, she demonstrated an impressive talent for seeing beyond the chaos to order, beyond the pain to healing, beyond the impossible to the possible. She was a natural leader, a brilliant teacher, and a dear friend.
Dennie’s life story is an example of someone who followed her intuition and listened to her heart. She spent her twenties working in Switzerland and falling in love with Provence. The simple life of the French countryside inspired her to purchase and renovate a beautiful stone farmhouse near the village of Chamaret. Over the next 33 years, many lucky guests were introduced to the sensual beauty and slower pace of Lavender Hill Farm — with time to enjoy the food, the companionship, and the small, everyday tasks of living. For example, a friend remembers how a farmer offered Dennie a taste of his gorgeous figs, delicately cutting one in half and feeding it to her with an expression of sensual delight on both their faces.
Returning to the U.S. in the midst of the human potential movement, Dennie read all the books, studied with the luminaries, and trained in the co-counseling approach to emotional well-being. Then she began her life’s work of teaching ways to listen without judgment, finding authentic expression, healing the past, and living fully in the present moment.
