Council on Aging Archives - Lighting the Way, Historic Women of the SouthCoast

Photograph Of Clementina Ponte - Face Of An Older Woman Smiling At The Camera. Woman Has Short Grey And White Hair And Is Wearing Stud Earrings.

Clementina “Tina” Ponte

Union leader. Political activist. University trustee. In these roles, Clementina “Tina” Rodrigues Ponte (1922-2013) worked to make the South Coast a better place.

Rita Lopes

From Wareham’s cranberry bogs to New Bedford’s Aerovox assembly line, Rita Alice Lopes (1915?-1999) emerged as a community activist who advocated for children, the elderly and Cape Verdeans.

Photograph Of Louise Strongman - She Is Sitting On A Boat With Short Red Hair, Glasses, White Shirt And Shorts

Optimistic that, as she insisted, “The world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket,” lifelong volunteer Louise Endicott Strongman (1912-2004) made sure that services were available for Dartmouth residents to become their best.

Kathleen Comiskey Roberts

Dartmouth educator and author Kathleen Comiskey Roberts wrote a history for children in 1959 so that students could learn about their town.