Bonyata, Alfred M. 1901-1965

BONYATA, MAYNE, OTIS, POWERS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 11/2/2009 at 07:58:51

Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Sept. 16, 1965

FUNERAL SERVICES HERE FRIDAY FOR ALFRED BONYATA

Alfred M. Bonyata, 63, of 1325 Fourth Avenue, died Tuesday evening at a Des Moines hospital. He had been ill the past year and had been hospitalized the last week in Des Moines.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday from the Smith Funeral Home with the Rev. Chester Custer, pastor of the Grinnell Methodist church, officiating. Organ music will be provided by Mrs. Willard Heffner.

Pallbearers will be Don Bailey, Lyman Case, Merton Johnson, Edd Phillips, Loring Rohr, and William Welsh. Honorary pallbearers will be Worth Belden, L.W. Brock, John Peters, R.H. Potts and Clifford Streck.

Burial will be in Hazelwood cemetery. Friends may call at the Smith Funeral Home.

The son of Charles Edward and Rachael Mayne Bonyata, he was born in Grinnell on Sept. 27th 1901. He attended the Grinnell schools, graduating from Grinnell high school with the class of 1919, and also attended Iowa State University and Grinnell College.

On Mar. 10th, 1925, he was married to Wilma Otis in Des Moines. To this union were born five children, four of whom survive: John O. Bonyata of Mountain Lakes, N.J.; Peter M. Bonyata of Warren Township, N.J.; Richard J. Bonyata of Tallahassee, Fla.; and Miss Mary Jane Bonyata of the family home.

He had been employed at the Grinnell Post Office for 29 years, serving the last six as a rural route mail carrier.

He was a member of the Congregational church and B.P.O. Elks Lodge No. 1266 of Grinnell.

Survivors include his wife, Wilma; his four children; eight grandchildren; and a sister, Mrs. Harriette Powers of Chicago, Ill.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a daughter, Ann Elizabeth Bonyata who passed away May 7th, 1965.