Jessie Y. Bonney - Submitted for the USGenWeb by Richard P. Sevier 2/19/2012

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Jessie Y. Bonney - Madison Parish, Louisiana

From Tallulah Madison Journal November 13, 1964

Mrs. Jessie Y. Bonney

Mrs. Jessie Yerger Bonney, at the age of 90 years, died at her home on Mulberry St. here, after a 
long illness, on Thursday evening, Nov. 8th in the late afternoon. Her relatives here, Mrs. Clyde May 
and Mrs. E. B. Schicker were with her.

Miss Jessie, as she was affectionately known, was born in Milton, Fla. She was the daughter of Dr. and 
Mrs. Wm. P. Yerger, her mother before her marriage was Mary Bolin of Milton, Fla. The family moved to 
Madison Parish, made their home at Millikin Bend and when the town moved to Tallulah, came with it.

At an early age Mrs. Bonney married Dr. John B. Bonney and they later moved to South America, where both 
Dr. Bonney and her only child, a daughter six year old, Irene, died. Mrs. Bonney returned to her family 
here, and it was then that she became associated with the young people of colleges. She was house mother 
at Staunton, Va. and the annual published there, the Inlook by the girls of Stuart Hall in 1922, is 
dedicated to Mrs. Bonney. She also was house mother at Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy at Port Gibson 
and later spent many years at All Saints College, Vicksburg, Miss. It was here the yearbook of the college 
attests their high regard for "Miss Jessie" in a poem.

Locally Mrs. Bonney is remembered by the older generation, for her untiring efforts in the yellow fever 
epidemic of Madison Parish, when she with others nursed all patients sick with the dread disease.

She organized the Kings Daughters in Madison Parish, and upon the organization of the cemetery, she was 
the one who named it the Silver Cross Cemetery.

She was a devout Episcopalian, and was ever ready to give of herself for her church and its progress.

Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon from Trinity Episcopal Church here, with the Rev. 
Paul A. Voney of Lake Providence officiating. Interment was in Silver Cross Cemetery in the family lot.

Although Mrs. Bonney was the last of a family of thirteen children, and her own family gone, she had a 
large number of devoted kinsmen, and a large group of friends from her days as a college house mother, 
with whom she kept in touch, and was always interested in.

Besides her niece, Mrs. Helen Yerger May here, she is survived by Mrs. Wade Kirkwood of Akron, Ohio, 
Mrs. Gus Hogan of Starkville, Miss. Mrs. Harold Kemp of Houston, Texas, Mrs. Bonney Thrasher of 
Choudrant, Miss., Mrs. Mary Louise Thrasher of Jackson, Miss. and Mrs. E. S. Dew of Fairfax, Va., 
all nieces. Her surviving nephews are: John Edward Yerger of Lafayette, La., William Yerger of 
Monroe, La., Beattie Yerger of Shreveport, La. and John Will Yerger of Bellaire, Tex.