Joyce Smart Fante, a Point Dume resident for 55 years and the widow of the late novelist and screenwriter John Fante, died Tuesday at Ocean Villas Retirement Home in Santa Monica from respiratory failure. She was 91.
Fante, a third-generation Californian and the daughter of Joseph Hutchins Smart, a famed 19th-century Northern California Gold Rush land developer, was a relative of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale and one of the first women to attend Stanford University. An editor and published poet before the age of 20, Fante in her later years wrote essays and poetry and edited the work of her husband.
Fante is survived by two sons, Dan and James, a daughter, Victoria Fante Cohen and eight grandchildren.
A service is pending at Our Lady of Malibu Church. Fante will be buried with her late husband at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.