IN MEMORIAM: Louisiana Legacy

By NNPA Newswire/BlackPressUSA

Carrie Wells Ponds, CNA, educator, and co-founder of The Drum passes away at 81

The Ponchatoula, Louisiana community honored the life of The Drum co-founder Carrie Wells Ponds on July 16, 2022, at the First True Love World Outreach Ministries in Ponchatoula.

Mrs. Ponds died July 9, 2022, in her home surrounded by her husband of 60 years, Eddie Ponds, and daughters Michelle and Sharon. Mrs. Ponds was born February 10, 1941, in Ponchatoula to the late Louis Wells and Charlotte Wells Jefferson. She was educated in the Tangipahoa Parish School System and graduated from Greenville Park High in 1960.

Always a dedicated mother and hard worker, she was a certified nursing assistant at Hammond Nursing Home and an early childhood educator at Little Oaks Day Care until she retired in the early 2000s. In 1985, she joined Eddie as co-founder of The Drum, the longest-published Black community newspaper in Louisiana’s Florida Parishes.

Mrs. Ponds was also a founding member of the Civic Organization for People Elation (COPE) the oldest and only incorporated civic organization that worked to ensure Tasker Park became a reality for the Ponchatoula community.  

She’s preceded in death by her father Louis Wells; mother Charlotte Wells Jefferson; brothers Louis Wells Jr., Johnny Wells, Percy Wells, and Charles Wells; and sister Deborah Wells Richardson.

Carrie leaves to cherish her memories her husband Eddie Ponds, daughters Michelle (Robin) Nesbitt and Sharon Ponds; grandchildren Robin “Tony” Nesbitt Jr. and Christine Nesbitt; great-grandchildren Micah Nesbitt and Robin Nesbitt III; sisters Bernice Jackson, Debbie Wells, and Priscilla Phillips; brothers Larry Wells and Sammy Mearridy; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends; and the New Zion Baptist Church Family in Ponchatoula.