PONTE

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, January 07, 2007 at 12:40:17 :

Independent Journal
Tuesday, July 10, 1962

RANCHER JOE PONTE SUCCUMBS

A longtime Marin rancher collapsed and died yesterday on the Muir Beach ranch he recently sold to the State Division of Beaches and Parks for expansion of Mount Tamalpais State park.

Joe De Ponte died despite efforts of a resuscitator crew rushed to the ranch by the sheriff’s office.

An autopsy performed this morning showed a heart attack was the cause of his death.

Ponte, 60, had been a dairy farmer on his ranch off the Muir Woods road for nearly 30 years. He planned to move to Petaluma with his wife, Isabel, and his son, Joe Ponte Jr.

Ponte was a native of St. George in the Azores Islands. Besides his wife and son, he leaves a brother, Manuel Ponte of Arcadia.

Requiem Mass will be sung at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mill Valley. The funeral cortege will leave Russell and Gooch Funeral Home in Mill Valley at 9 a.m. The Rosary will be recited at 8 p.m. tomorrow in funeral chapel. Entombment will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery, San Rafael.