Eleanor Fontaine

1921 - 2016

Eleanor Haldeman Fontaine

Jackson

Eleanor Haldeman Fontaine died January 16, 2016. Visitation and a luncheon will be on Tuesday, January 19, 2016, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at St. Andrew's Cathedral preceding a Requiem Eucharist at 1:00 p.m. in the nave. Burial will follow in the Canton Cemetery family plot.

She was born July 9,1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Marguerite Dodds Haldeman and Paul Johnson Haldeman. Her family later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she grew up. After attending Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, she married John Eaton Fontaine III on October 11, 1941, in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. The couple lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, prior to moving to New Orleans. In 1952, they moved to Jackson.

Over her sixty-four years in Jackson, she participated in numerous civic and community activities. At St. Andrew's Cathedral she served on the vestry and was an officer of Episcopal Church Women. She was one of the founders and a chairwoman of Families in Crisis; taught Sunday school, including confirmation classes; and volunteered regularly for Meals on Wheels and in the Cathedral's bookstore. She also was a lay pastoral caregiver representing St. Andrew's.

She was a past president of the Triangle Club at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, as well as a library and PTA volunteer. She tutored English through both the day school and the Cathedral, including tutoring in the Jackson Public Schools.

She participated in the civil rights movement, serving as a program chair of the Interfaith Alliance and hosted members of Wednesdays in Mississippi.

Other civic activities included the Christmas Clearinghouse, for which she served as chairwoman for two years. She was a volunteer from inception at the Stewpot and a past board member. As well, she represented St. Andrew's Cathedral as a chairwoman of the Stewpot food pantry.

She was a weekly volunteer for over twenty years at Contact the Crisis Line, and also volunteered frequently at Good Samaritan. Past board memberships include Friends of the Library, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

She worked with the Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille and with Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

Her husband of 71 years predeceased her, as did her brother, Paul J. Haldeman. She is survived by daughters Maury F. Lutin, Martha F. LaValla and her husband Dominic; son John E. Fontaine IV and his wife Mary Ann; grandsons John and Will Fontaine (Meg Fontaine); and several nephews, nieces and cousins.

The family expresses heartfelt thanks to caregivers Nicole Slaughter, LaShunbey Ferguson and Barbara Davis, and much gratitude to the nursing staff and Hospice Ministries on Floor 5C, Baptist Hospital, as well as Doctors Tim Cannon, Jason Murphy and Holland Addison.

Memorials may be made to Stewpot, Contact the Crisis Line, the Women's Foundation of Mississippi, St. Andrew's Cathedral or St. Andrew's Episcopal School.