Bonnie L. Tatham

Mrs. Tatham died Sunday, Aug. 17, 2003, at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community.

She was born Sept. 10, 1913, in Pittsburg, the daughter of George W. and Pearl (Turner) Willis. She had lived in Lawrence since 1935.

Mrs. Tatham worked at Kansas Color Press, Commercial Equipment, J.C. Penney’s, The Hawk’s Nest and Weaver’s. She also was manager of Teepee Restaurant and owned and operated Hut Cafe on West 23rd Street.

She was president of Delta Sigma Phi Mother’s Club, a life member of Lawrence Twilight Chapter of American Business Women’s Assn., and a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, Rebekahs, White Shrine of Jerusalem, Social Order of Beauceant and S.O.O.B’s Past President Club. She was a member of the Civil Air Patrol in the mid-1940s.

She married James Robert Tatham on Jan. 23, 1932, in Girard. He died in September 1988. An infant son, James Warren Tatham, died in December 1940.

Survivors include a son, Clifford B. Tatham, Olathe; three daughters, Patricia A. Disque and Mary Rector, both of Lawrence, and Ruth E. Strickland, Fairfield Bay, Ark.; a brother, William J. Willis, Pittsburg; a sister, Juanita Garner, Pittsburg; eight grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; three stepgreat-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

Friends may call from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday at the mortuary, where family will receive friends from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday.

The family suggests memorials to Alzheimer’s Assn. or Kansas Masonic Foundation, sent in care of the mortuary.

E-mail condolences may be sent to info@warrenmcelwain.com, subject: Tatham.