Bonyata, Wilma R. 1907-1991

BONYATA, MCMULLEN, OTIS, OLSEN, MART, MADDY, THOMAS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 11/2/2009 at 08:08:23

WILMA BONYATA

Wilma R. Bonyata, 84, of 1325 Fourth Ave., Grinnell, died Thursday, Aug. 1, at Grinnell General Hospital.

Graveside services were conducted Monday at Hazelwood Cemetery, with the Rev. Daniel I. Ogata officiating.

Memorials may be made to Hospice Grinnell and sent in care of the Smith Funeral Home.

The daughter of Roswell C. and Mildred L. McMullen Otis, she was born Jan. 18, 1907, in Casey. She moved to Grinnell in 1923 and graduated from Grinnell High School the following year.

She was married to Alfred M. Bonyata March 10, 1925, in Des Moines. The couple lived in Grinnell where she worked for General Telephone Co. from 1949 to 1965. From 1965 to 1973 she co-owned and operated, with her sister, Marguerite Mart, the Hallmark Card Shop.

For many years she worked with the Gray Ladies of the American Red Cross.

Surviving are three sons, John of Tallahassee, Fla., Peter of Genoa City, Wis., and Richard of Lake City, Fla.; one daughter, Mary Jane Olsen of Rockwall, Texas; eight grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; two sisters, Marguerite "Dete" Mart of Grinnell and Joan Maddy of Council Bluffs; and one brother, Roswell Otis of Haywarden.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; one daughter, Ann E. Bonyata; one sister, Helen Thomas; and one brother, Joe Otis.