Jacklyn Bray Brunt

Jacklyn “Jackie” Bray Brunt, age 88, of Newtown Square, PA, passed away on April 14, 2025. Jackie was born July 21, 1936 in Camden, New Jersey to Jack and Beatrice Bray. She attended Moorestown Friends School where she was an all-state player and captain of the undefeated field hockey team her senior year, as well as lettered on the varsity basketball and tennis teams, served as editor of the school newspaper and the yearbook, and presided as Homecoming Queen. She went on to Oberlin College in Ohio, class of 1958, and worked summer jobs as a lifeguard and swimming instructor at the YWCA in Camden.

After college, Jackie lived in Philadelphia and worked at Pennsylvania Hospital. Most evenings, she and her friends would meet at the Wannamaker Eagle to begin their night out. In 1960 she met Manly. Her friends who were first hearing about her new romantic interest were at first confused as to why she kept saying the word manly, not understanding that it was a proper noun rather than an adjective. They married December 2, 1961 and started a family.

One of Jackie’s many gifts was that she naturally worked to improve herself throughout her life. She held leadership positions at the League of Women Voters, presided on the board of The Haverford Friends School, for decades took classes at the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, was an active participant in Chanticleer in Wayne. She was an enthusiast of the arts, especially literature. She co-founded her Book Club of many years, as well as her Civility Group that explores social and political issues of the day (in a friendly way!).

She is best remembered for her beautiful smile, and is well known among her friends and her children’s friends for her sly wit which she maintained even in her last days.

She joins her husband, Manly Yates Brunt, Jr., and is survived by her four children (Diane, William, Douglas, and Kenneth), their spouses, four grandchildren, and her sister, Sandy.

Family and friends are invited to Jackie’s Viewing 2:00 -3:30 PM on Sunday May 18th, 2025 at The Donohue Funeral Home, 366 West Lancaster Ave, Wayne PA 19087. This will be followed by a reception at The Merion Cricket Club. Interment is Private.