After graduating from a high school in Oklahoma in the late 1940s, Bonnie Overton Boyer moved to Western Springs to live with her aunt and uncle. She attended Moser Business School in Chicago and later worked as a secretary at several area companies, including Dean Foods.
One day, while waiting to board a train headed for the Loop, Mrs. Boyer was introduced by her neighbor to a young man at the Western Springs station. Seven months later, the couple married.
“I was smitten the first time I laid eyes on her,” recalled her husband of 55 years, William. “The first time I asked her out, she told me she had plans. So I kept trying, asking her for a date five times, before she finally agreed to go out with me. But looking back, I’m glad I hung in there.
“Marrying Bonnie was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
While working at Dean Foods, Mrs. Boyer introduced her husband to a company executive, who offered him a job that he retired from 36 years later.
“I used to joke that when we married I got a wife and a career,” her husband said.
Mrs. Boyer, 78, of Western Springs, the mother of two and a former secretary at the Grand Avenue School in Western Springs, died Monday, June 5, in the British Home, a health-care facility in Brookfield, after a long battle with dementia.
Born in Enid, Okla., Mrs. Boyer was a 1944 graduate of Ponca City High School. After moving to Western Springs, family members said she quickly acclimated to the small west suburban village, making friends almost immediately. She joined a local chapter of the P.E.O. Women’s Organization, a philanthropic organization that promotes the advancement of women through education.
“I used to tease her that P.E.O. stood for Phone Each Other, because she was always on the phone talking with a member,” her husband said.
A member of the P.E.O. for more than 50 years, Mrs. Boyer was also a past president of the organization.
“She was just a lovely lady in every way, and so well known in the community,” said fellow P.E.O. member Nancy Caris. While raising her two sons, Mrs. Boyer also worked for nearly 20 years as a secretary at Grand Avenue School, during the 1960s and ’70s. The school, which has been converted into a preschool and community center, closed in 1981.
“She loved her job at the school, even though sometimes she was more a nurse than a secretary,” said her husband.
In a retirement booklet to Mrs. Boyer, children from the Grand Avenue 1st-grade class wrote the following:
“Thank you for helping me, especially that time I stepped on a thumb tack,” and “Thanks for giving me an ice pack when that stick hit my eye,” and “I think you’re a nice lady, because you fixed my bloody nose.”
After retiring, Mrs. Boyer delighted in spending time with her family and visiting with friends, family members said.
“Bonnie was so much fun to be with,” said longtime friend Connie Krumwiede. “We played bridge. We golfed and played tennis. We even took a nature course together.”
Other survivors include two sons, William and David; and five grandchildren.
Services have been held.
