Catherine 'Bonnie' Stanley

Catherine "Bonnie" Stanley, a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, since 2003, died peacefully in her sleep of natural causes at the Sanford Hospice Cottage on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019, with family at her side. She was 96.
"Bonnie" was born on May 3, 1922, in Warwick, N.Y., to Douglas Drummond Bonnyman, a physician, and Johanna Bichsel, a Swiss immigrant who became a nurse.
After graduation from Warwick High School, Bonnie attended Houghton College for two years before joining the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps to be trained as a nurse at the Mount Vernon, N.Y., hospital, where she met her husband, World War II veteran U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer William Joseph "Bill" Stanley.
The couple spent the next decade moving around from one port to the next with the U.S. Navy. They eventually settled into civilian life in New York, where Bill had a second career as a high school math teacher while Bonnie worked for several years as a nurse, spending the last 33 years of her nursing career at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt V.A. Hospital in Montrose, serving our veterans and culminating in her retirement at age 80 in 2003.
Following her retirement, she relocated one last time to Sioux Falls to be near her family and enjoy her four grandchildren.
Bonnie loved the ocean and was an avid swimmer, often joining the lifeguards at Jones Beach, N.Y., in ocean rescue drills.
She loved attending philharmonic symphony concerts and especially organ recitals. She was a lifelong member of the Pearl Harbors Survivors Auxiliary.
In Sioux Falls she was a member of the First Reformed Church and enjoyed many happy hours at the Sertoma Butterfly House and attending South Dakota Symphony concerts.
Her family cherishes memories of Bonnie's sense of adventure, her sense of humor, her sparkling Bonnyman brown eyes and her love of dark chocolate in any form.
Bonnie is survived by her three daughters: Bonnie (Wayne) Birkel of Baltimore, Maryland, Colleen Stanley of Vero Beach, Florida, and Dr. Laurie (Neal) Landeen of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; four grandchildren, Glen (Kim), Ryan (Susan), Kelly (Paul) and Kyle; and two great-grandchildren, Brayden and Harper.
Her brother James Bonnyman was killed in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest on Dec. 4, 1944.
Her husband Bill died in 1988 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Arrangements for burial with her husband at Arlington this spring are being made by the Miller Funeral Home in Sioux Falls. A celebration of life following burial will be held in Baltimore.
In lieu of flowers, memorial charitable donations may be made to the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls (butterflyhousemarinecove.org), South Dakota Symphony (<http://sdsymphony.org> sdsymphony.org) or the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society ( <http://nmcrs.org> nmcrs.org).