- Date Of Birth: January 19, 1933
- Date Of Death: November 9, 2008
- State: Indiana
Bonnie J. Davis, 75, of Elkhart, died in her sleep Sunday morning, Nov. 9, 2008.
Born and raised in Fort Wayne, she moved to Elkhart and married William M. Davis, and successfully reared four great children, Kathryn Levreault of Orlando, Fla., William Davis of South Bend, Robert Davis of Avon and Bruce Davis of Elkhart.
She dedicated her life to assisting others. You could see her at the polls each election day, supporting a neighbor by walking their child to school or using her culinary talents cooking for Lifeline. She also supported Youth for Christ and University of Indianapolis. As part of her love for shopping and especially bargain hunting and using coupons, she started shopping for older shut-ins. This grew and became so popular in the community that she was recognized by the city of Elkhart and sponsored by the Council on Aging.
She had spent many years volunteering at the church through prayer chains, funeral dinners, and folding weekly bulletins and monthly newsletters. In addition to shopping, she loved gardening. Her house and yard are a variable smorgasbord of hundreds of flowers, plants, trees and bushes, not to mention her garden. She has supplied many people with plants and food from her gardens. In fact, she still has tomatoes on her back counter from all the canning and a fresh raspberry pie in the fridge.
She was an avid reader and went to the library weekly to get more books. (We better remember to take the ones back that are still sitting on the table). She enjoyed keeping in touch with her family and friends through e-mail, especially a good joke or a message of inspiration. Just Saturday morning she sent us three new ones before 5 in the morning. Yes, she was an early riser.
Lastly, she will be remembered for thousands and thousands of pounds of peanut brittle she made. For 40 years she has been tantalizing people’s taste buds with this sweet mixture of syrup, nuts and sugar. Many people have tried to copy it but couldn’t, even though she freely gave out the recipe. Yes, it was so thin that people would swear that if you turned the piece upside down that the nuts would fall out; and that she never charged enough. The truth is that the ingredient that made the difference was the love that she put in it.
She loved to go to plays, band concerts, church services on Lake Wawasee, playing bridge with the club and going places with her close friends.
She will be greatly missed by her beloved dog, Emmy (We’re glad we never asked her who she loved more) and her many friends and survivors including children; daughters-in-law, Vickie Davis (Avon) and LaFon Davis (South Bend); her grandchildren, Todd (Cindy) Levreault, Tiffany (Joe) Gumino, Ashley Levreault, Andrea Levreault, William Zachary Davis, John Tyler (Brooke) Davis, Benjamin Cody Davis, Robert (Jill) Davis, Nick Davis and Megan Klee; great-grandchildren, Michael Paul Gumino and Blake Allan Davis; brother, Keith (Nancy) Henninger of Fort Wayne; and sisters-in-law, Jean Davis of Elkhart and Phyllis Davis of Naples, Fla.
She is preceded in death by her husband, William; her mother and father, Mary and William Henninger of Fort Wayne; her brother, Robert, and his wife Sue Henninger of Fort Wayne; brother-in-law, Carl Davis of Naples; and son-in-law, Paul Levreault.
