JEAN LEETE STEWART

Jean Leete Stewart was born Dec. 15, 1936, the second of four children to Carolyn and Alexander Payne Leete.

Laughter, smiles, connection—and sense of irony were the key to life of Jean, age 88, fortunate enough to have an education at Grosse Pointe High School, Smith College and post-degree study at Wayne State University in Detroit. Her life-long friends gave her so much pleasure and included a happy 64-year marriage to the kind, fun-loving Donald Bruce Stewart with whom she shared the love of art, choral music, dancing, sports and travel.

She started singing with the Grosse Pointe Memorial Church choir under director, Malcolm Johns, the Smith College Glee Club, Noteworthy, a 12-member group in Ibex arts group in Grosse Pointe and Alpena Community Chorus from Jim and Mary Louise Hart to 2023 and many church choirs. She and Don were co-presidents of the Village Dance Club and danced wherever it was allowed. They both loved painting and had many watercolor and acrylic paintings in Art in the Loft and Besser Museum competitions. She and Don were active members of the Thunder Bay Arts Council and she a member of NEMAG. They traveled the world including 49 of the 50 United States. Her work life included setting up and managing dental and medical offices downstate and teaching everything from first grade to ninth grade.

Her work life with Don included a relief managing team for LaQuinta Hotels, and a wholesale jewelry business, named Small Bridge Studio all over Michigan and Arizona. They repped artists’ lines of jewelry at art shows.

She loved sports her whole life from synchronized swimming with Grosse Pointe High and Smith teams and competitive swimming at the Detroit Boat Club, where she was co-captain. Don and Jean played golf at Alpena Country Club and Lost Lake Woods and team tennis in Alpena.

Her loving, exuberant, fun-loving family includes Don, their two sons Robert Bruce ( Mindy) and Jonathan Bruce (Jane) and five grandchildren Ellen (Dylan Brown), Anne Leete Stewart, Robert Bruce Stewart Jr., Carolyn Grace Stewart and Duncan Mackenzie Stewart. She joins her sister Anne Parcells, her stepsister Mary Evely and is survived by her siblings John Hopkin Leete (Trudy), Liz Hacking and stepsister Susan Schuur Plotkin (Jack).

Arrangements for her funeral will be handled by Gillies Funeral Home in Lincoln Michigan; She will be cremated, and a celebration of her life will be held in April.