Jean Ponte

Passed away on October 28, 2019 at the age of 94 of complications from congestive heart failure. As a young adult, Jean was involved in the theater, performing in a traveling company and summer stock theaters in Connecticut and Long Island, NY. Later she worked as a copywriter at advertising agencies in Chicago and St. Paul. Jean attended Western Michigan College and graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. She was an avid artist and writer. She published 4 works of fiction and completed numerous paintings, showing several times in local galleries. She was a longtime member of the Columbia Artist Group. Jean had a love of nature, particularly water. As both a child and adult, she spent many summers at the family cottage in Mackinaw City, Michigan. She loved walking along the shore, listening to nature and finding interesting pieces of driftwood and fossils that she used as inspiration for her art. Her family shares her love of Mackinaw and the surrounding area, and continues to vacation there. Jean was preceded in death by her parents, Harry and Bessie Moore, her brother John E. Moore, and her husband of 60 years, Joseph Ponte, Jr. She is survived by her children: Wendy Ponte of Minneapolis, MN, Mars de Ponte of Portland, OR, and Malcolm Ponte (Christine) of Springfield, VA. She is also survived by her granddaughter Adelaide Ponte Usdin of Minneapolis, MN. A service of remembrance will be held on Friday, 22 November 2019, 5:30 PM, at the Meadowlark Hills Community Center, Manhattan, KS. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Good Shepherd Hospice House or a make a "wish list" item donation to the Manhattan Animal Shelter (https://www.mhkprd.com/DocumentCenter/View/2857/Wish-list-of-needs-) or left in care of Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Ave Manhattan, Kansas 66502.