Frances English

Fances Bonnell English "went on to the next phase" as she liked to put it, two days before her 97th birthday on June 23, 2019 surrounded by family for a loving farewell. She was born in Cloudcroft, NM in 1922 into a homesteading family in the high mountains. From delivering milk by horse and wagon to cell phones, she witnessed many changes in her lifetime. She was a fearless matriarch who loved her husband and family first and foremost.

Her husband, Leroy English, passed away ten years before and her family all thought she wouldn't be here long after his passing as they were joined at the hip and did very little separately. Leroy and Frances were both very smart with much common sense and a sense of fair play. They made an interesting couple and accomplished much. As she often did, she surprised her family by learning to dance and yodel, read and laugh, and be basically noncompliant to those who tried to take care of her. She forged her own path. To say she was stubborn does not suffice; stubbornness is very prominent in the Bonnell DNA.

She is survived by her five grown children: Mike and Susan English, Pat English and Donna Alsdurf, Dwight and Karla English, Sean English and Alice Spitzer, and Mary Malarsie. She had 10 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

With her passing is an end to an era, a loss of another of that great generation who seemed to persevere with strength and innovation through whatever hardships came their way.

We will miss her very much. One of her favorite sayings from a 1944 song was, "You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don't mess with Mr. In-between." She had many old sayings, and in her last few years when she had thrown discretion to the wind, she would blurt out many that were not very appropriate but that didn't keep her from saying them.

A private family remembrance will be held in August.