Bonnie Marie Pickering was born on 20 December 1925 in Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa. She and
Dan William Kemmerer, Sr., were married on 31 May 1947 in Maywood, Cook, Illinois.
1 She died on 13 April 2014, at age 88, in Vista, San Diego, California. She was buried in Good Shepherd Cemetery, Huntington Beach, Orange, California.
1 Bonnie Marie Pickering was a Sales Clerk in Spurgeon's-Oelwein, Iowa.
2 VISTA, Calif. - Bonnie Kemmerer, 88, passed away peacefully April 13, 2014, after battling a long illness. She passed away in the home of her daughter where she had resided for the past four years surrounded by her children's love.
She was born Dec. 20, 1925 to the late Lester and Bess Pickering of Oelwein, Iowa. Bonnie graduated from the Oelwein High School and later married the late Dan Kemmerer. They spent the majority of their married life living in Garden Grove, Calif., and returned to Oelwein in 1968. That was the time when Bonnie went to work for Spurgeon's in downtown Oelwein as a sales clerk and retired in 1987. She returned to California in1998 to spend the rest of her years with her children who all now live in California.Her greatest love was that of her children and grandchildren. She will be best remembered for her incredible strength through the duration of her illness and never ending will. The doctors caring for her describe her as one of the "saltiest and spiciest" women they had ever had the pleasure of treating. She lived with great love and compassion for others.
Bonnie is survived by 6 children, Mark, David and Diane Kemmerer, Anne Huffman, Michael Kemmerer, and Linda Kellogg, all of Southern California. She is also survived by 16 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Dan Kemmerer; her youngest child, Danny; and both parents, Lester and Bess Pickering.
Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Monday, April 21, at St. Francis Catholic Church, 525 West Vista Way, Vista, with viewing from noon until Mass time.