Bonnie Lorraine Barnes' Obituary
Bonnie Lorraine Barnes, age 83, died from Alzheimer’s Disease at Lady Lake Specialty Care on May 1st, 2017. Bonnie had been a resident of The Villages, Florida since 2010.
Bonnie was born August 2, 1933 in Lehigh, Iowa to Bill and Bernadine Gerard. In 1944 the family moved to a farm east of Titonka, IA. She attended Titonka Consolidated School and graduated in 1950, then attended Iowa State Teachers College. She graduated with an associate degree in elementary education. She took her first teaching job in Corwith, IA just after her 19th birthday. She went to Washington D.C. in 1953 to work for the FBI. Upon her return to Iowa, she went back into teaching and taught at St Ansgar, Lehigh, and Humboldt before making a career change. She then began a long association with the insurance industry.
In 1955, she married Bob Davis of Buffalo Center IA. They had one daughter, Colleen. They were divorced in 1971. Bonnie married Bob Barnes of Waynesboro, VA in 1977 and divorced in 1984. At that time she returned to Iowa and re-established her insurance career.
She obtained her CPCU designation in 1990 and was known throughout the Midwest for her agent licensing and continuing educations classes, as well as teaching CPCU classes at Drake University. In 1999, she retired from Continental Western Insurance Company where she had been a Director of Education for several years.
She had many hobbies including writing, flower gardening, sewing doll clothes, scrapbooking, and genealogy.
She is survived by her daughter Colleen, three nephews including Jeff Gerard who she thought of as a son, great nephews, and many other extended relatives. She was preceded in death by her father, mother, and brother Gale Gerard.
Donations in her honor may be made to the Alzheimer’s & Dementia Resource Center. www.ADRCcares.org. Bonnie’s brain has been donated to their Brain Bank Research Program in hope of a cure of this terrible disease.
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