Bonita (Bonnie) Helene Lamich (nee Benzing), born June 21, 1931, entered into heaven on June 18, 2023. Bonnie was born during the Great Depression in Blue Island, Illinois, to Carl J and Helen Benzing (nee Weber).
Bonnie graduated from Blue Island Community High School (now Dwight D. Eisenhower High School) before moving to the Pacific Northwest, having been inspired by her Aunt Loretta Weber of Tacoma, Washington, who was employed in the paper industry there as a financial bookkeeper. Bonnie briefly attended the University of Washington in Seattle and ultimately worked as a draftsperson for the Boeing Airplane Company. While in Seattle, Bonnie met George Joseph Lamich, a US Navy Lieutenant and Aviator, and the two were married on July 16, 1955.
Their first child, David Joseph, was born while Bonnie and George lived in Oak Harbor, Washington, while George was stationed at Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island. After leaving the Navy, the family moved to Urbana, Illinois, where Jeffery James and Neil Edward were born, and then to Orland Park, Illinois, where children Philip Thomas, Matthew George, and Anne Marie were born. In 1995, Bonnie and George moved to their dream home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.
Bonnie is survived by her husband, George, their six children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
A funeral mass will be held at two o’clock p.m. on Friday, June 23, 2023, at Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville, NC. Graveside services will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.