Freestone County, Texas
Obituaries

Obit for Janet Louise (King) Bonner
    (3 Sep 1943 to 23 Jun 2021, buried at Stewards Mill cemetery) 
    
  Janet King Bonner died at home in Southlake, Texas  on June 23, 2021.  
Alzheimer’s is insidious. She requested cremation and no services. Janet is 
survived by Michael Edd Bonner; Carlajo, Christopher, & Jessica Oehrlein; Edd, 
Deborah, & Michael Bonner. The family is grateful for the excellent care 
provided by Keri Gilbert and “Above and Beyond Compassionate Care.”
  Janet King Bonner, only child of Carleton & Jewell Freeman King, was born in 
Tyler, Texas on 3 September 1943. Her birthday was a couple of weeks before her 
parents’ 17th wedding anniversary. She grew up on a farm in the Starrville 
community of Smith Co., Texas. Janet attended Winona schools and graduated as 
Salutatorian in 1961. Learning to play the piano early, she also took organ 
lessons. For many years, she and her mother provided the music at First United 
Methodist Church in Winona. Janet’s upbringing as “a child who should be seen 
and not heard” helped make her shy. She never said much in large groups but 
enjoyed being with friends and in small groups. As a very private person, she 
was very selective with her confidences and felt that personal things “were 
nobody’s business.” A stubborn streak insured that telling her that she had to 
do something resulted in her definitely not doing that. She received her driver’s 
license when she was 14, and became the driver for her family; in sixty-plus 
years of driving, she never had a traffic ticket. After graduation from Winona 
High School, Janet attended Tyler Junior College where she was a member of the 
Singing Apaches. Upon receiving her AA Degree from TJC, she enrolled in Stephen 
F. Austin State College in Nacogdoches. While a freshman at SFA, Mike was 
attracted to the young lady playing the piano at The Wesley Foundation. That 
young lady was Janet King. Janet received the BS Degree from SFA in 1965, moved 
to Tyler, and taught math at Boulter Junior High. By that time, she and Mike were 
engaged. According to a stranger who yelled at them out of the window of a 
passing car on a Tyler street, Mike “didn’t deserve a girl that good looking.” 
Mike couldn’t have agreed more. They were married in Tyler in 1967. After 2 years 
teaching, Janet had a job, a brand new car debt free, and $1000 in the bank; 
Mike had a degree. After attending SFA during the summer sessions, Janet was 
awarded the M.Ed. Degree in 1967. Janet spent the 1967-1969 school years teaching 
math at Irving High School in Irving, Texas. In 1969, she and Mike moved to 
Austin. They returned to Tyler in 1970, where Janet concentrated on raising 
Carlajo and Edd and in caring for her widowed mother. In addition to the usual 
household duties, she sewed clothes for herself and the children. Janet enjoyed 
crafts like macrame, tole painting, knitting and crocheting. After learning 
needlepoint and cross-stitch, she spent countless enjoyable hours completing 
needlepoint and cross-stitch projects. A five-panel cross-stitch Nativity is the 
centerpiece of her collection of over 200 nativity sets from all over the world. 
As an active member of The Order of the Eastern Star, she served as Worthy Matron 
and held several grand appointments. She also found time to enroll in computer 
science classes at UT Tyler. In 1984, she began teaching math and computer science 
at John Tyler High School. After both children graduated high school, Janet and 
Mike moved to Flower Mound, Texas for jobs in Lewisville Independent School 
District. After a year, Janet trained as a travel agent and became certified as 
a Master Cruise Counselor. When Mike retired in 1996, she quit her job. They 
kept one foot in the road for quite a while visiting all 50 states, 120 countries, 
and all 7 continents. Some travels were aboard cruise ships while others were 
land tours; private tours were interspersed with a few group tours. They 
preferred traveling in “a group of two.” Several trips to enjoy the European 
Christmas Markets provided festive ideas. When cruising the Nile in Egypt, they 
enjoyed private tours with an Egyptologist. Touring Tanzania with private guides 
and vehicles provided insight into African wildlife as did seeing “the Big Five” 
in Mala Mala, South Africa. Climbing around the ruins of Machu Picchu and Easter 
Island’s Moai was challenging but worth the effort. Seeing the Taj Mahal by both 
sunrise and sunset was an unforgettable experience. In  2012, they used 
accumulated miles on Lufthansa Airlines to fly Around the World free and visited 
Turkey, Japan, and Bali, enjoying private tours in each country. Another summer 
they spent 3 weeks in a flat in Interlaken, Switzerland and another week in 
hotels. Their 50th Wedding Anniversary was spent at the “Four Seasons” in Chiang 
Mai, Thailand. A thirty-five day circumnavigation of Australia in 2018-2019 was 
their last big trip. When asked which trip was her favorite, Janet usually 
replied, “The one I’m on.” or “The next one.” Neither she nor Mike regretted 
money spent on travel; their mantra was “Travel While You Can.”