Bonnie Jo Tondera
August 9, 1934 – August 10, 2019
Bonnie was born near Bayfield, Colorado to Joe Bailey Perkins and Florence
Mitchusson Perkins. She graduated from Springfield High School in Springfield,
CO and Baylor University in Waco, TX with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.
She married Steve Ernest Tondera on September 1, 1956 in Liberal, Kansas.
She was a faithful member of First Baptist Church for over 60 years and a
teacher of many ladies Sunday School classes, as well as, library custodian for
many years. Bonnie spent most of her nursing career at Huntsville Hospital
serving in various administrative roles, the longest being Vice President of
Nursing for 13 years. She was on the faculty at the School of Nursing at the
University of Alabama Huntsville for three years where she earned her Masters
of Administrative Science. She was appointed by the Governor to the Alabama
Board of Nursing and served a four-year term. Bonnie loved the outdoors with
her favorite hobbies being hiking and studying wildflowers. She was active in
the Alabama Wildflower Society and Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Her love of
wildflowers lead to the publishing of a book, “Wildflowers of North Alabama” in
1987. Bonnie also enjoyed genealogy and traced both the Perkins and Tondera
family’s history back many generations, including foreign travel to document and
share the family chronicles.
Bonnie is predeceased by her parents and her sister, Dixie Lee Hickey.
She is survived by her daughter, Tamra Tondera Renfrow (husband, Denny),
and daughters Kate and Anna (Kelseyville, CA); son, Steve Ernest Tondera, Jr.
and his children, Shayla and Trey (Lester Prairie, MN); son, Joe Harold Tondera
and his children, Joe and Sophie (Albany, GA).
Visitation will be Saturday, October 12, 2019, 9:30am at First Baptist Church
Huntsville in the Upper Gathering Place (Entrance 1). Memorial Service will
follow at 11:00am at the First Baptist Church Chapel.
Memorials may be made to North Alabama Land Trust, 2707 Artie Street, Suite
6, Huntsville, AL 35805, www.landtrustnal.org & Huntsville Botanical Gardens,
4747 Bob Wallace Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35805.
