Jeanne Pusateri

Jeanne Ryan Pusateri, 89, of Avondale Estates, GA passed from this life on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025.

Born Sept. 22, 1935 in Passaic, New Jersey, Jeanne was the second of three children of Ruth Hohman Ryan and Robert Roderick Ryan. Her family moved frequently for her father's work with a railroad company. They settled in Columbus, Ohio, where Jeanne and her siblings attended Catholic schools, graduating from Holy Rosary High School.

As a child, she liked to swim. While visiting a lake with teenage friends, Jeanne saved a girl from drowning. That girl went on to have many children and always credited Jeanne with making it possible. At the Columbus Zoo, when two children fell through the ice on a frozen pond, Jeanne was part of a group of children who formed a human chain to pull them to safety.

As a young adult, she worked at a department store, then an architectural firm. She married Charles Pusateri in 1956. She had her hands full, with four children born close in age. Her husband traveled often for work, and Jeanne was left to handle a house full of young children.

The family moved to Decatur, Georgia in 1967.

She was a talented seamstress, and for many years, she sewed all of her daughter's dresses as well as her own. She sewed costumes for school plays, Halloween costumes and puppets for puppet shows. She gave sewing lessons to her granddaughter. In her last few years, she kept her sewing machine in her bedroom, always hopeful that she would be able to get back to the craft again.

Somewhat out of character for her quiet, reserved nature in her mid-50s, in 1991 she bought a new Ford Mustang with a V8 engine, and she liked to drive it fast!

Jeanne also loved to travel. She saw Australia, Ireland, Hawaii, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic. She took cruises to Alaska, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Caribbean. She took a job in Southern California with Northrop once her children were grown. She loved being near the ocean especially seeing the sunsets.

Jeanne is preceded in death by her parents, Ruth and Robert, by her husband Charles and by her brother John.

She is survived by her children Christina (Terry) Turner, Michael (Peggy) Pusateri, James (Pam) Pusateri, and Vincent Pusateri; her grandchildren Coleman Pusateri and Anastasia Pusateri; by her sister Kathleen; and by several nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass will be held Friday, Feb. 28, 2025 at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church, 5373 Wydella Road, Lilburn, Ga., 30047. A reception will follow at the church.

A graveside service at St. Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, Ohio will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Jeanne's memory to the St Vincent de Paul Society at https://svdpgeorgia.org/.