Mary Elizabeth White (nee Kerwin), 93, of River Forest, died at home on June 2, 2016. Born on April 3, 1923, the oldest of eight children, she grew up in Elmhurst and Oak Park, attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart boarding school in Lake Forest and graduated from Rosary College in River Forest, where she earned a degree in drama and speech.
The mother of 11, she and six other moms decided, at a church picnic, to start a breast-feeding support group that turned into La Leche League, an international organization with millions of members.
The first meeting was held at her Franklin Park home in 1956.
According to her La Leche League biography, “We always said, back in those days, that the three main obstacles to successful breast-feeding were doctors, hospitals and social pressures. I think the desire to breast-feed was always there, along with the conviction that ‘breast is best.’ We were not promoting a product that people had to be convinced about. But very few young mothers knew anything about the ‘how to.’ Women had forgotten the wisdom of previous generations.”
The founders published The Womanly Art of BreastFeeding, a book that sold 2 million copies.
Her husband, the late Gregory White, M.D., a family practitioner, actively supported the group.
Mary White was the mother of Joseph M.D. (Susan), William M.D. (Cathleen), Mary Catherine (Kevin) Thornton, Anne, Mary Regina (the late James) Stirton, Michael M.D. (Debra), Mary (Gregory) Dooley, Clare (Timothy) Daly, Maureen (John) Smillie, Elizabeth (Thomas) Dillon, and the late Margaret; the grandmother of 61 and great-grandmother of 108; the sister of Michael (Ann), Joseph (Shirley), Paul (Jean) Kerwin and the late Katherine (Ralph M.D.) Ryan, Edward (the late Margaret), John (the late Judith) and Thomas (Mary Ann) Kerwin; and the fond aunt and great-aunt of many.
Visitation was held at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home in Oak Park. A funeral Mass was celebrated on June 10 at St. Luke Church in River Forest, followed by interment at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston.