James H Ponder Sr.

James H. "Jim" Ponder Sr., 81, passed away Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Bossier City, Louisiana. A graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 1, 2021, at Rose-Neath Cemetery, 5185 Swan Lake Road, Bossier City, Louisiana. Dr. Larry Williams will be the officiant. Jim was born August 31, 1939, in Hackberry, Louisiana to Henry and Annie Willis Ponder and raised in Jonesboro, Louisiana. He attended Jonesboro Hodge High School until he transferred his senior year to Bossier High School, where he graduated in 1957. Jim served in the United States Navy as a photographer's mate at the Brooklyn, New York Receiving Station until his discharge as a petty officer second class. He returned to Shreveport, Louisiana in 1960 and began his more than 50-year life insurance sales and management career for Aetna Life and Casualty. In 1976, he established and operated James H. Ponder Insurance Company. Jim earned the Chartered Life Underwriting designation in 1967. He served in leadership positions with several civic and professional organizations, including the Shreveport Association of Life Underwriters, Million Dollar Roundtable, Sales and Marketing Executives, CEO, and Shreveport Jaycees. He was a longtime member and Sunday School class leader for Broadmoor Baptist Church and served for more than two decades as a board member of the Louisiana Association for the Blind. Former Shreveport Mayor Calhoun Allen selected Jim to participate in a delegation of civic leaders who spent a week aboard the USS Shreveport (LPD-12) during exercises in the Atlantic Ocean. Jim is preceded in death by his mother; father; stepmother, Billie; brothers, Don Ponder and Charlie Ponder. Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Patty Shaver Ponder; brother, Stephen and wife, Mary; children, Jim Ponder and wife, Lori, Virginia Claire Ponder, Drew Ponder, Margaret Matlack, and husband, Mike, Amy Barnett, and Kim Kimball and husband, Tray; grandchildren, Betsy Matlack, Caroline Ponder, Andrew Ponder, Sam Matlack, Abby Ponder, Benjamin Ponder, Will Kimball, Ben Kimball, Katherine Kimball, and Josh Kimball. The family would like to express their gratitude to the staff of the The Blake of Bossier City.