Bonnema, Ruth (Mrs. Earl) 1930-2017

BONNEMA, BORGMAN, VERMEER

Posted By: Marjorie Brunsting-Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:34

Mrs. Ruth Bonnema, age 87, of Orange City, passed away on Saturday, July 8, 2017, at the Prairie Ridge Care Center in Orange City.

There will be a memorial service on Tuesday, July 11, at 11:00am, at the Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City. The Rev. Donald Lenderink and the Rev. John Hubers will officiate. Interment will be prior to the service at the West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City. There will be a family prayer service on Tuesday, at 10:00am, at the Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City.

Visitation with the family present will be on Monday, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, at the Prairie Ridge Care Center.

Ruth Arlene was born on January 2, 1930, in Sioux Center, the daughter of Everet and Alida (Borgman) Vermeer. She was the tenth of eleven children. She attended country school and Sioux Center schools. Following graduation, she attended the American Business Institute in Des Moines. Upon returning home, she worked at Cambier Motors in Orange City as a bookkeeper.

On July 9, 1954, she married Earl Bonnema at Sioux Center. They had one daughter, Pam. She enjoyed working in various places in Orange City as a bookkeeper and Secretary. Some of these places included Earl’s Seed and Feed, Rogen and Ford Bookkeeping, The Reformed Church in America, and the Trinity Reformed Church. Earl passed away on May 26, 1996, in Orange City after more than 41 years of marriage.

Mrs. Bonnema was a member of the Trinity Reformed Church, where she enjoyed serving in many different roles. Playing cards was a pastime she liked, being in one card club for more than fifty years. She also enjoyed being close enough to attend all of her grandchildren’s events, watching Northwestern College basketball, and traveling.

In December of 2011, she moved to the Landsmeer Ridge Retirement Community and later to the Prairie Ridge Care Center, both in Orange City.

Survivors include her daughter and her husband, Pam and Jim Thornton, of Archer; a granddaughter and her husband, Erica and Kevin Wilkinson, of Williamsburg, and their children, Maddie and Matt; a grandson, Brent Thornton, and his fiancé, Michelle Groen, of Grimes; a sister, Cynthia Kaskey, of Aurelia; three sisters-in-law, Helen Vermeer, Ellen Vermeer, and Shirley Vermeer; a brother-in-law, Dan Niffenegger; and many nephews and nieces.

In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by her siblings and their spouses, Edna and Gershom Van Roekel; Aldine and John Van Roekel; Hester and Daryl Black; Irwin Vermeer; Lloyd Vermeer; Mildred and Gerald Schutt; Delaine Kolb; John Kaskey; Eleanor Niffenegger; Wally and Jo Vermeer; and Wayne Vermeer.

Source: Oolman Funeral Home online obituary.