Donna Nessler Fonnotto Smith, 86, left the world a little less full of life on November 27, 2024, when she was loosed from her earthly bonds. Donna Nessler was born on March 26, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, but arrived in the Sunshine State in December 1948, when her father, Paul Nessler, retired from the Chicago Police force and the family relocated to the warmth of Florida, settling on the banks of the Pithlachascotee River in New Port Richey.

After graduating from Gulf High School in 1955, Donna entered the legal world, working for the late attorney Harvey Delzer in Port Richey. As a beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, Donna was always the life of the party. West Pasco was too small to hold her, and after she tired of driving to the night-life of Clearwater on weekends (she could get from NPR to Clearwater down the two-lanes of US 19 in only 20 minutes in her convertible - at 100 mph and no stop lights) she moved into the business world, working for American Sugar in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico in the ‘60s was a happening place. All of the mainland US loved to vacation there, and many of her family members visited Donna there being entertained by her friends in the Casinos and Dance Clubs. Donna would keep everyone back home informed about her life by recording voice letters on a reel-to-reel tape and mailing them home where they could listen to her tales. The idea was loved so much that the family made their own tapes and sent them to Donna, as well as circulating them amongst themselves as Donna’s younger sisters had also left the nest, one back to Chicago and one to Alabama. These tapes kept the family in touch and bonded, even when they would sometimes go years without seeing each other.

It was in Puerto Rico that Donna met and married Frank Fonnotto. She soon found herself living In America’s birthplace, Philadelphia, still working for American Sugar, but now raising her two sons, Pasquale “Packy” and John. When Frank retired from his work as a Master Electrician, their young boys were still growing up and going to school and Donna knew where she wanted to relocate; back to family. Back to Florida.

The Fonnotto family bought a home in Holiday and raised their sons among their Grandmother Ruth, who lived to 95, as well as Uncles and Aunts and Cousins galore. Sadly, during this time, Packy, who suffered from childhood cancer, passed away at a much too young age. His passing taught us all to live each day to its fullest as tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Donna returned to the legal world and was rehired happily by Harvey Delzer. She continued to work there until Frank passed and John went off to college, then she was wooed by a Title Company in Pinellas county and started a new chapter in her life. She moved to Pinellas, eventually settling in Indian Rocks Beach in a condominium overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

It was in Pinellas that she was introduced to a jovial Southern gentleman from Virginia named Dennis Smith. After much courting and proving of his devotion to Donna by losing to her for three years straight at her favorite card game, “Hand and Foot”, Dennis got down at her foot and asked for her hand. The happy couple married at sunset at the edge of the Gulf and started a new and wonderful life selling real estate and traveling overseas by cruise ship, often in the company of family members.

After nearly 20 years together, Donna left Dennis in their home in Trinity to be reunited with her son, Packy. Donna was preceded in death by her father, Paul Nessler, Jr., her mother, Ruth Nessler, her older brother, Ronald Nessler, and her sister, Joyce, who died as an infant.

Donna also left behind her son, John Fonnotto, his wife, Sarah, and their two children/her grandchildren, Jay Jay (John) and Leah; Ronald’s children, Jennifer, Melanie, April, and Ronald, Jr., and Ronald’s wife, Nancy; Donna’s oldest brother, Paul Nessler, and his sons, Paul, Jr., Reed and Jeffrey (and their sister, Frances, who she loved like a niece); her sister, Gloria Weigman and her husband Clarence, and their sons, Richard and Carl; and her sister, Sylvia Murray (husband Charles, predeceased) and her children, Michele and Karl, and all of their families, including great nieces and great nephews, and even some great, greats, all of whom she loved and who all loved and adored her, learned to LIVE life from her, and will always remember her.