MARGARET MARIE (PAINTER) FORTMAN, 95, of Pilot Grove, passed away at Katy Manor on May 10, 2014, with her family by her side.

Marie, a descendant of Hannah Cole, was born on July 14, 1918, to James Leslie and Maggie Cordelia (Solomon) Painter, in Bellair, Missouri. She grew up with two older brothers, Robert and Edgar, and younger brother Billy, on the family farm outside of Pilot Grove. She graduated from Boonville High School in 1937, and eventually moved to St. Louis with friends to work in their beauty salon. Through mutual friends, she met John Herman Fortman. They married on April 26, 1942, in Bellair, Missouri.

Marie and Johnnie started their lives together near his family in the St. Louis area. They soon moved to the Pilot Grove area where they raised their children, daughter Nancy and sons John Leslie and Herman Lee, and shared the heartache of the loss of their youngest daughter, Rose Mary.

Marie loved to quilt by hand, crochet, knit, and weave rugs on her mother-in-law’s loom. She also enjoyed going for walks down to the creek on the farm, cracking walnuts in the fall, and baking angel food cakes for everyone’s birthday. She loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren dearly.

Marie was preceded in death by her husband Johnnie and daughter Rose Mary, her parents and brothers, her granddaughter Leslie Jean, sons-in-law Dan Jenkins, Sr., and Cliff Aldrich, and daughter-in-law Pam (McKenzie) Fortman.

She will forever be loved and missed by daughter Nancy Aldrich, sons John Leslie (Jeannie) and Herman Lee, all of the family farm; grandsons Dan Jenkins, Mark (Melissa) Jenkins, John (Koko) Fortman, Joe (Kristen) Fortman, and Doug (Cheri’) Fortman; granddaughters Jennifer (Daniel) Lowery and Susan Fortman; and great-grandchildren Natasha, John, Alexandra, Zach, Lily, Lori, Paige, Alexis, Layton, Brianna, and Lakota.