If it hadn’t been for Nancy Hughes, it’s likely her husband, John, never would have produced the string of movies that Roger Ebert said made him “the creator of the modern American teenager.”
When they met at Glenbrook North High School, she crossed chasms of teen cliques to be with him. And when they were newlyweds with little money or connections, she supported his script-writing dreams.
She was his cheerleader and most trusted adviser in the 1980s as he churned out films like “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Home Alone,” “Mr. Mom,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “She’s Having a Baby.’’
And whether they were living on the North Shore or the movie colonies of California, Mrs. Hughes created homes that were a refuge against shifting Hollywood loyalties and box-office receipts. She filled them with good food, lively music and fun card games.
If asked, she offered down-to-earth advice for guests, including her children’s buddies, up-and-coming actors, or John Candy and his family, who were close friends.
Mrs. Hughes died Sept. 15 at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital of complications from a blood infection after a perforated ulcer, according to her son, John. She was 68.
“She helped my dad be the best he could be,” he said.
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She became ill two weeks ago, the day after she buried her mother, Naomi Ludwig. Mrs. Hughes had taken her mom into her Lake Forest home and been a devoted caregiver, her son said, despite the grief that followed the deaths of her sister, Janice, in 2000, her father, Hank, in 2013, and her husband in 2009.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Hughes focused on family, friends and philanthropic causes. She contributed to the restoration of lakefront bluffs and the John & Nancy Hughes Theater at Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest.
At the hospital where she died, she’d funded the John and Nancy Hughes Pavilion.
“So much of her life was helping to make my dad so great and being a team player with him,” their son said. “Those movies wouldn’t have been made without her. She played defense for him and built this wall around him.”
He relied on her intuition regarding studio meetings and players. And, “My dad always showed her early cuts” for feedback, he said.
“It was really inspiring to see how complementary they could be to each other,” he said. “It was kind of unstoppable.”
In the early days of their marriage, John Hughes worked at Leo Burnett advertising in Chicago — “his first real cozy job with benefits,” he said.
When Hughes decided to write for the National Lampoon and devote himself to scriptwriting, “She was all-in,” their son said. “She said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”
With early films like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” “He was able to shoot in his own backyard” in the north suburbs, their son said. But with success came pressure to move to California. They returned to the Midwest in the late 1980s.
Young Nancy grew up in Northbrook. In 1967 she met John Wilden Hughes at Glenbrook North. “They were in different crowds. My dad was playing music and was painting and being sort of an artist, and my mom was willing to cross into his crowd, and that was it,” he said. “They went from high school all the way through.”
She was 16 when she brought 17-year-old John home.
“I’ll never forget, my dad said to John, ‘What are you going to do for the rest of your life?’ ” she once told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And John said, ‘I want to be a poet.’ ”
She was so worried about her father’s reaction, she thought she might be sick. But she said he admired young John’s work ethic.
After high school, he worked the night shift at a tape company. Around the time they married in 1970–when she was 19 and he was 20–her husband had a job in the advertising unit of Bankers Life and Casualty, according to their son.
Mrs. Hughes is also survived by her son James and four grandchildren. Services have been held.
“My mom missed my dad so much. It was a hard 10 years for her,” their son said. “When my dad died I couldn’t find any silver lining. My mom, at least there’s that —we laid her to rest next to my dad” in Lake Forest Cemetery.
In the Hughes film canon, the movie most closely linked with her is “She’s Having a Baby.” He dedicated it to his wife, and, “A lot of their story is woven into that movie,” their son said.
“Both [stars] Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern really took the time to get to know my parents, to really get to know that role,” he added.
During production, he said, “My dad had a long conversation with [singer-songwriter] Kate Bush about my mom.” The result was his use of “This Woman’s Work” in a sequence where an anxious Bacon waits for McGovern to emerge from giving birth, with the lyrics:
Give me these moments back
Give them back to me
Give me that little kiss
Give me your hand.
