Ardelle Donohue passed away on September 21, 2024 at her home in Inverness, Florida. She was 90 years old.
\nShe was born to Frank and Helen Lewis in Pennsylvania, and spent most of her formative years in the town of Ephrata. Her father was a minister, and having been taught the piano from a very early age by her mother, she would play the piano and organ during Sunday church services.
\nArdelle graduated from the Drexel Institute of Technology. Her first job was in the travel department at the Pentagon; interestingly, her responsibilities included making travel arrangements for those involved in the Manhattan Project. However, her career was predominantly as a graphic artist in the graphic arts department of Queensborough Community College. She had her own successful business as well. In addition, she worked as office manager for Julia Harrison, member of the New York City Council.
\nEarlier, she had moved to Los Angeles, California, driving cross-country. She lived and worked there for a number of years before returning to New York to marry John Donohue, music librarian for the New York City Opera Company.
\nFor many years, they lived in Flushing and Bayside in Queens, NY. Active in the Queens Oratorio Society, Ardelle was also its president for several years.
\nHaving retired from Queensborough Community College, she relocated to Athens, Ohio. While there, she became an integral part of the community, doing volunteer work for its public library and working as a props mistress for the local community theatre at the Stuart Opera House in Nelsonville. She was a member of the Ohio University Chorus. She made friends easily, and was loved by many.
\nHer final years were spent in Inverness, Florida, at the invitation of her step-brother and his wife, in idyllic surroundings.
\nArdelle Donohue is survived by these immediate family members: step-daughter, Nancy Donohue; step-granddaughter, Lindsay Capacio; step-brother, R.J. Kelly and his wife Jackie; and step-sister, Karen Hosman.
\nHer beloved friends include: Ruth Borovicka, Celeste and Jim Parsons, Laurence Fuchs, Paul Bader, David Griffiths, Alan Sultan, Rachel Plimack, Pat Reichardt, Luke Frazier, the Davie Family, Peter and Judy Jarjisian, Hannah Sickles, Penny Plesset, Suzanne Ragg, Gregory LaVelle, Jeanette Delponte, Mary Cote, and Beatriz Roman, among many others she crossed paths with during the course of her long life.
\nShe was preceded in death by her husband, John Donohue; and step-daughters, Lenore Capacio and Cassandra Clifford.
\nShe requested that no funeral service be held. Private cremation at Chas. E. Davis Funeral Home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ardelle Donohue passed away on September 21, 2024 at her home in Inverness, Florida. She was 90 years old. She was born to Frank and Helen Lewis in Pennsylvania, and spent most of her formative years in the town of Ephrata. Her father was a minister, and having been taught the piano from a very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95988,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95834\/revisions\/95988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}