Memorials › John Young Bonner Sr

John Young Bonner Sr

6 Apr 1916 – 9 Jul 2011

Birth6 Apr 1916
Death9 Jul 2011
CemeteryBonner Cemetery
Fairfield , Freestone County , Texas , USA
Added byMichael Edd Bonner on 10 Jul 2011
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73132243

Bio

John Young Bonner, oldest son of Jim Billie Bonner and Nannie Belle York, was born April 6, 1916 at Bonnerville, Texas. He was named for his grandfathers. John attended school at Burnett's Chapel where his teachers were Aunt Lulabel McAdams Bonner and Mamie Folk Richardson; he remembered that he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bonner one year along with Hope. School was a new experience for him, and he remembers the following: "When I started school up there I was just a little boy. Wasn't nothing. And I wouldn't talk, wouldn't read, wouldn't do nothing. They told Papa that week when he come over there to Grandpa's and got us. Next morning we went out to the barn and he picked up a weed and worked me over. I had to go to talking." John went to school in Fairfield but did not graduate. John remembered that he and his sister Hope were both sick with the flu and staying at Uncle Paul's house when Laura Belle died. He said that Cousin Hale Robinson treated them with a concoction of liquor and castor oil. John started working early and worked all his life. "Papa," he said, "started me to plowing. He let the handles down on a little wooden plow might near straight when I was six years old. Started me opening up furrows. I cut stalks for Uncle Hunter with a one-row stalk cutter…There was a lot of stumps in that old place. I'd hit a stump and turn that stalk cutter over and it would throw me off. I'd have to go to the house and get Papa to come set it back up for me." In relating to life as a child, John also remembered that everyone used to let their milk cows out to graze on the sides of the roads. It was his job to go get the cows every evening. He recalled that he often worked for seventy-five cents a day with that day beginning at sunup and ending at sundown. John recalled bootlegging activities along Cox's Creek: "They made whiskey all up and down there. Papa carried us down there one Saturday night…to put out a few hooks [fish.]. We sat there where they had that still and talked to them. When they got through cooking that old sludge, they had a pit they poured it in. It was boiling." The following is how John landed his first job off the farm: "Papa come home in a wagon one time. He'd come to town and we'd stayed out in the country….He come home that evening late. He said, ‘I got you a job.' I said, ‘A job doing what?' He said, "Riley Middleton said he would take you in.' Silas Dockery was the foreman in the shop and he said he'd be willing to train me as a mechanic. Well, Boy, I didn't know what a dang car was. Didn't have nothing but a pair of pliers…." Thelma Jane Robertson, daughter of Carl Jackson Robertson and Willie Lola Hamilton, became his wife on June 4, 1937; Brother Herbert McKissack performed the ceremony at the Joe Brown place on Bateman Road. Their honeymoon was an overnight trip to Corsicana. Jim Billie borrowed fifty dollars so John and Thelma could begin married life. John and Thelma lived several places in Fairfield including Auntie's garage apartment and a house they built on North Hall Street before making their home at 766 North Fairway in Fairfield, which they bought from Mrs. Jim Sessions for $7500. At the time John was making nine dollars a week. In addition to ranching, John was a mechanic. He and his brother, Joel Andrew, operated Bonner Garage on Commerce Street in Fairfield. Thelma belongs to Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield. John and Thelma were parents of Lola Jane and John Young, Jr. and they now own the land where Young's and Sallie's house stood. --------------------------------------------------- From "The Fairfield Recorder" John Y. Bonner, 95, of Fairfield, passed away Saturday, July 9, 2011 in Fairfield. Graveside services will be 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at Bonner Cemetery with Rev. Terry Skinner officiating. Visitation will be Monday, July 11, 2011 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Capps Memorial Chapel. Mr. Bonner was born April 6, 1916 in the Stewards Mill community of Freestone County to parents Jim Billie and Nannie Belle York Bonner. He married Thelma Robertson on June 4, 1937 in Teague. Mr. Bonner was a retired automotive mechanic. He first worked for the Ford Dealer in Fairfield then in 1953 owned and operated Bonner Garage until 1976. He served as Freestone County Constable, Precinct 1 from 1976 until 1992. He also ranched and sold antiques in the flea markets in Canton, Texas. In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by two brothers, Sam and Billie Bonner and a sister, Laura Bonner. Survivors include his wife Thelma of Fairfield, two children, Jane Salter and husband Thomas of Fairfield; John Y. Bonner, Jr. and wife Geri of Fairfield; a sister, Hope Baker of Fairfield; two brothers, Joel and Albert Bonner, both of Fairfield.

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