Bonnie Lee Wells

Funeral services for Bonnie Lee Wells will be held Thursday, June 17, at 10 a.m. at the Coupeville Foursquare Church with Pastor Garrett Arnold officiating. Graveside services will follow at Sunnyside Cemetery.

Bonnie Lee Alexander Wells, 79, died June 13, 2004 at her home in Coupeville following an extended illness. She was born Oct. 15, 1924, in Santee, Neb., to Harold and Frances (Lamm) Alexander. Bonnie moved to Golden Valley, Minn., as a small child, then in the mid 1930’s moved to Matanuska Valley, Alaska, as a part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal colonization project of low-income farm families of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

In 1939, Bonnie moved to South Whidbey and in 1941, to Coupeville which became her permanent home. In 1942, she married David B. Wells, a soldier at Fort Casey, and they started their family of five children.

While raising her family, Bonnie worked for the Whidbey News-Times as the local gossip columnist with a weekly column titled “Bonnie Notes.” She was also the babysitter for many of the Coupeville children, worked for a time as a rural mail carrier for the Postal Service and owned and operated the Sweet Shoppe of Coupeville for several years.

Bonnie is survived by five children and their spouses: David Wells and Jean Wells of Coupeville; Boyd Wells and fiance‚Vicki Crichton of Oak Harbor; Sandra Wells of Coupeville; Joanette and Keith Joiner of Valley and Wendy and Rick Witt of Brewster. Two brothers and their spouses, Don “Babe” Alexander and Jeanette and Bill and Mabel Alexander of Clinton, and 16 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren also survive. She was preceded in death by her husband David Wells in 1976 and one brother Bob Alexander and her parents. Her great passions were gardening, especially flowers and vegetables and her family and friends.

Memorials may be made to breast cancer research. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Burley Funeral Chapel, Oak Harbor.