Bonnie Ratliff

Bonnie Ratliff            January 28, 1921 - August 27, 2014

Bonnie Hensley was born Jan. 28, 1921 along with her twin brother, Donald C. Hensley in Brutus County, Kentucky.  It wasn't known that there was going to be two of them, so it was a real struggle for the family.  It is told that they didn’t even put in a garden that year.  Bonnie had one older brother, Gaston. Three other siblings had previously died in early childhood.  Their mother, Ida, and father, Irvin, were both schoolteachers.  Two other children, Beatrice, and Cleo, followed.  When Bonnie was 11, Ida died of cancer.  Being the oldest daughter, the cooking became Bonnie's responsibility.  It was said that the potatoes were burned on one side and raw on the other.  At about age 15 Bonnie went to live with her aunt, Nola, but was only there to work and she was unhappy.  Having assumed the mother role, she worried constantly about how the other children were getting along.

When she was about 18 she went to Cincinnati to live with an older step-sister, Edith, got a job working for a laundry and settled in. She made a decision to believe in Jesus Christ during this time.  There she met the love of her life, Cecil Ratliff.  They were married on Sept. 30, 1942. 

 Cecil was an officer in the Army and assigned to troop ships transporting soldiers to and from war areas in both the European and Pacific theaters.  Their daughter, Joyce, was born in 1944 in Ironton, OH while her dad was abroad.  He came home on leave three weeks after she was born.  A son, Wayne, was born in 1946, also in Ironton.   After the war ended, Cecil was discharged from active duty.  Cecil also believed in Christ during this time.

In 1950, Cecil was recalled to the Army during the Korean war, sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky and then in 1951, to Germany.  Bonnie and the children followed in early 1952, living on Warner Caserne near Munich.  The family traveled at every opportunity and ended up visiting 7 other countries. They returned to the states in early 1954 and settled on a farm at Sinking Spring, Ohio.  Cecil remained in the Army reserves and retired many years later as a major.

In 1962 he was laid off from his job near Waverly, so he and a friend drove across the country until he was hired at a company near Denver.  Bonnie and Cecil lived at Arvada, CO for  18 years then retired to New Mexico, first to Belen and then to La Luz.  Over the years, they traveled to Hawaii, Ireland, Scandinavia, China, and the New England states.  

In 1992, after Cecil died (just four months short of their fiftieth anniversary), Bonnie moved to Las Cruces to be near her sister, Bea.

With her memory beginning to fail, she moved to Edmond, OK in November, 2006 to be near Joyce and her family.  She lived in an independent living facility for 4 ½ years then transferred to an assisted living facility.  After 1 ½ years she fell and broke her hip which caused a loss of mobility and she was then forced to enter a nursing home, Tuscany Village in Oklahoma City.  Her dementia was becoming severe so she never really realized where she was but never acted unhappy.  She reported seeing Cecil often.  Her dementia advanced until she died on August 27, 2014.  She will be missed by her daughter, who was her caretaker, and her son, Wayne and their spouses.

Don, Cleo (Janie), Bea, and Bonnie (May 2012)

 Also surviving are two sisters, Bea and Cleo, her twin brother Don, two grandchildren, one great-grandchild and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Bonnie's ashes will be interred next to Cecil’s in Denver, CO.