Totoo Pinto

Totoo Pinto passed away peacefully early morning July 4, 2019 surrounded by family in her apartment at Park Vista, East Moline.

 

A Celebration of life will be held at 12:00pm Saturday at St. Pius Church, Rock Island. Visitation will be from 10:00am to service time at church.

 

She was born July 1, 1932, in Karachi, then part of colonial India, daughter of George and Theresa (Fernandes Pinheiro) Thomas. She was christened in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Karachi, as Anna Georgiana Rachel Thomas. 

 

Totoo attended Karachi Grammar School, and later Bishop Cotton in Bangalore, India, where the family moved after partition. She graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Bombay. She moved to London to pursue a medical degree, and met and married Kenneth Pinto in 1953. Trained in classical Indian dance, she performed with the famous dancer Ram Gopal and his company in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

They had four children. The family moved back to India in 1958. Their daughter Sunita died at the age of 7 in India, and Sandra passed away at 47 in Shirley, Illinois, in 2008. Kenneth died in 2011.

 

In India, Totoo worked as an executive secretary for several companies. She worked in the travel industry until the family immigrated to the United States in 1978, settling in Rock Island. She worked for Bituminous Insurance, Rock Island, and later for Industrial Technologies in Davenport. After her retirement, she taught computer skills for Scott Community College. She was active in the local chapter of Red Hat Society and was a volunteer ombudsman for adult protective services.

 

Survivors include her daughter, Debra (Christopher) Hindley; son, Nicholas and Carmen (Simmons) Pinto; her late daughter Sandra’s husband, Larry Kupferschmid; grandchildren, Natalie, Anne (Dave), Ryan, Danielle, Sunita (Benjamin), Samuel, and Stephen (Hannah); great grandchildren, Ethan, Gabriella, Corbin,Mya, Gianna, Charlotte, Kacidy, and Caroline; brother Vincent (Margaret) Thomas, Rock Island; sister, Penny Furgerson of Des Moines, IA; several nieces and nephews; and special friend, Harold Seitz.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Doctors without Borders or St. Judes Children’s Hospital.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Totoo Pinto, please visit our floral store.