 Boneva C. “Bonnie” Hall
A Memorial Celebration for Boneva C. Hall, longtime Lamar resident and area school teacher, was held at 11:00 AM, Thursday, May 3, 2007 at the Lamar First Presbyterian Church with Pastor Rory Gillespie officiating. Interment followed at Fairmount Cemetery.
Mrs. Hall was born January 5, 1916 at Cortez, Colorado to Thomas Archer and Floy Beatrice (Prunty) Coppinger. She passed away at her home in Lamar with her family by her side on April 28, 2007. Boneva was 91.
Bonnie, as she is also known to her family and friends, is survived by her three daughters; Betty J. Speelman of Ignacio, CO, Mary J. Jenkins of Colorado Springs, CO and Jamie A. Hall of Denver, CO. A sister, Betty (Van) Wiley of Antimony, Utah, a brother, Hurschel (Chloris) Coppinger of Cortez, CO also survive. She is also survived by ten grandsons including J. Klint (Kileen) Hall of Albuquerque, NM, granddaughter, Wendi J. (Crockett) Rider of Lamar, six great granddaughters including, Andrael Hall, Mikaela Hall, and Morgan Rider, eight great grandsons including Cole Rider as well as her sister-in-law, Bertie Jean Hall of Lamar and nine nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her husband Jack Hall on March 11, 2006, her parents, a brother Doyle and Lallie Coppinger, great grandsons, Storm Tyler Hall and Tiger Jordan Hall and her son-in-law, David A. Speelman.
Bonnies father had been born Cortez before the turn of the century. She was the eldest of four brothers and sisters. After she arrived, the family welcomed Doyle and Hurschel, her two brothers, and Betty, her younger sister.
As she grew up in Cortez, her father guided her toward college. She arrived at the University of Denver in the fall of 1934. Boneva accepted her first teaching job in Lamar in the fall of 1938. This began her life in Lamar which was continuous except for a brief stay in California. As the business teacher at LUHS, she had many of Lamar’s students just a few years younger than she was. On a visit at the hospital with the mother of one of her students, Bertie Jean, she met her future husband Jack Hall. They dated, but he joined the Army at the onset of World War II. Boneva left Lamar and moved to southern California to live with her sister-in-law, Chloris, and friends while they awaited the birth of her nephew, Gary. Hurschel had already been deployed with the Navy. While in CA, Jack was finishing basic training at Camp Penalton and they were married in January of 1943. Jack left for the south Pacific and Boneva worked for Hughes Aircraft until the war ended.
Boneva returned to Lamar with Jack and they began their life here. At their first daughters, Betty’s baptism, they both became members of the First Presbyterian Church. This began her 60 year membership in this church family. Boneva had a second and third daughter, Mary and Jamie in the early 50’s. She loved the outdoors and worked hard to build a beautiful home and yard for her family. She and Jack nurtured both family and home. The dust storms of the mid-fifties sent her into one of her first depressions. She had never lived anywhere that the dust could hang in the air for so long and make it impossible for her to spend time outside.
As Jamie entered Kindergarten, Boneva returned to teaching, first substituting in the Lamar schools and then teaching. She had a special bond with her mother-in-law, Lillie Hall, that allowed her to entrust her youngest daughter’s care to Lillie as she restarted her teaching career. As her husband campaigned for Assessor and her daughters grew, she taught and maintained their home. Never the house keeper, her daughters flourished, and her yard was the center of the neighborhood.
Since both an education and the church was so very important to both Boneva and Jack, they made certain that their three daughters took an active part in both. Boneva attended Woman’s Circle with her mother-in-law, Lillie, and taught Sunday school for a short time. She, Lillie, and Jack always made certain that they were available to help with the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. Boneva and Jack were sponsors of PYF when Betty first entered high school. But Boneva’s passion for the outdoors took hold when the church moved to its current home in 1962. While Jack mowed the new lawn, Boneva sought out every rouge dandelion in the lawn. She gave special attention to the roses along the front sidewalk.
Throughout her career, Boneva taught in every school in the county from Kindergarten at Holly to Business at Lamar Junior College. In 1965, she began teaching business at Granada. During the next 13 years she did what she loved, taught, and begrudgingly graded those necessary papers. As she retired, a new era began in her life. She had two new lights in her life. Her grandson, Klint, and granddaughter, Wendi, were new arrivals and began to enjoy “Grandma Bonnie’s” yard.
As Klint grew he visited his Grandma and Grandpa every summer and went to vacation bible school her at the church. Then Klint went with her to deliver Meals-on-Wheels and take food to the food bank as she taught him about recycling long before there were recycling centers in Lamar. Boneva and Jack loved to travel and took Klint with them to the summer Assessors meeting. Wendi moved from Campo to Lamar as she entered first grade at Washington. Grandma and Grandpa were charged with picking Wendi up after school each day so that she could stay with them until her mother, Mary, finished work. Grandma took Wendi to vacation bible school and she became the new helper for Meals-on-Wheels.
Boneva had to have known that the dementia was setting in but shared it with no one except to begin trying to give items to family members when she appeared perfectly healthy. As Klint and Wendi grew and married Kileen and Crockett respectively, she loved to travel and spend time with great grandchildren. Even after she lost two great grandsons to VLCAD, she had time to read signs and play alphabet games as she traveled with Andrael and Mikaela. Even within this last year, she was able to read to Morgan and Cole, thinking that they were Wendi and Klint. She could read the same story dozens of times and Morgan and Cole could listen to it them dozens of times. Actually, as active as they were, they probably finally heard the whole story that way.
Having volunteered many places throughout Lamar, her one wish was to remain in her own home where she could see her family, flowers, and yard every day. Thanks to the wonderful care by her family, and her caregivers, Francis Beneditez, Liz Apple, and Ashley Apple, she was able to do that. Boneva passed peacefully Saturday, April 28, 2007 with her daughter, Mary, and granddaughter, Wendi, by her side. She is Free!
Online Condolences | | A wonderful person has passed into God's garden in heaven. No more pain, no more frustration from memory loss....she indeed is free. Mrs. Hall was my business teacher at Granada and an awesome teacher she was. There's never a time when I am typing either on the computer or the typewriter, that I don't think of the skills she taught me in her typing classes.......skills that I depend on even today. My condolences in your loss. dellen | | I am sorry to hear about your mother - I have been thinking about you. Cody |
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