Jovita Enriqueta Ponce

Jovita Ponce lived most of her life in Texas ¬and set an example of kindness, grace and generosity. She started adulthood as a single working woman at a time when that wasn’t the norm, and later spent seven decades as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Jovita died peacefully Feb. 7, 2026, at age 95.

Jovita was born to Kate and Alex Murillo on Dec. 16, 1930, in Azusa, California, when his work was managing an orange grove. She was named after her grandmother Jovita, and grew up in Ysleta after the family returned to Texas. She graduated from Ysleta High School, where her mother ran the cafeteria for decades.

After high school, Jovita became a trusted assistant at a bank. She was an adventurer, taking a 700-mile road trip with girlfriends from El Paso to California to see her beau, Abraham Ponce, who was stationed with the U.S. Navy in San Diego. Jovita and Abe had met on St. Patrick’s Day when she was a high school senior and he invited her to his prom at Clint High School, down the highway from Ysleta.

They eventually married in 1955 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, also known as the Ysleta Mission, now the oldest continuously used church in the United States. They raised five children together, moving their young family from El Paso to Arlington when he took a job in Dallas.

Jovita lived in the same Arlington home for almost 50 years, looking after neighbors, regularly attending mass, and ferrying children and grandchildren to school, sports, band practice and to Braum’s for ice cream.

She read the newspaper daily and loved murder mysteries. The most important item in her purse was her prayer booklet with the novena to St. Jude. She lived her faith intentionally and with quiet dignity.

She lost her daughter Susan to cancer in 2012. Her husband died in 2020. She also was preceded in death by her parents and her older sister.

Jovita is survived by her brother, four children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The staff at Moore Funeral Home encourages family and friends to express their fond memories, expressions of sympathy and additional condolences to the family of Jovita Enriqueta Ponce, by visiting www.moore-funeralhome.com.

In addition, if you or someone you know wish to send a floral condolence to the Ponce family in honor of the late Jovita Enriqueta Ponce, you may choose to do so by calling In Bloom Flowers and Gifts at (972)-256-6637.