Bonnie Dawn Barrigar

With great sorrow and bittersweet gratitude, Bonnie Dawn Barrigar was released from the tether binding her to this life and allowed to transcend to greater glory on March 30, 2024, after succumbing to the final knockout blow delivered over a prizefight of six years by a determined assailant in cancer. She was 67 years old.

 Bonnie was brought into this world on April 7, 1956, in Saginaw, Michigan kicking and screaming for suffering the indignity of leaving her predictable world in utero for all the unpredictability of this world. Born to Keith Arnold Barrigar, and Dorothy Maxine Avery, Bonnie adapted quickly to her new earthbound environment meeting each day with joy. She found bliss in simple things: the sound of rain tapping its Morse Code poetry on a metal roof, the strong but pleasant floral scent of Dogwood, the clownlike display of Northern Lights on a midwinter night, and the unrestrained laughter found in the sounds of the green woodpecker’s cry. Bonnie was different than most folks. She paid special attention.

 At age eleven, the family relocated to British Columbia where her love affair with nature continued to thrive. After graduating high school, Bonnie worked variously with her father in his refrigeration business, as a security guard in a lumber camp, honed her writing skills as a reporter for a Canadian weekly newspaper and dove headfirst into artistic expression writing short stories, poems, and graphic arts, crafting hundreds of dolls, as well as designing her own clothing, passions she maintained up to her 67th year selling many of her creations along with personally crafted jewelry made from semiprecious stones. In time she relocated to Washington State and settled for two decades in Goldendale, Washington where she expanded upon her relationship with her creator and marveled in creation daily. Her longest duration employment was with a retail mom and pop business custom filling orders for designer teas. Bonnie often related the joy of continued employment as a humble “bagoleer”. With her employment proceeds, she purchased a home and realized a certain degree of stability. It was not to last. Goldendale downsized after losing its most important employer, an aluminum plant, and Bonnie lost her job. Shortly after, Bonnie’s difference was named when she was diagnosed with autism.

Animals were more predictable to Bonnie and so she leaned toward their companionship. She raised miniature schnauzers and attempted to pen a novel. Bonnie has a special interest in history with Vietnam grabbing her attention most forcibly. That’s where her friend, James Spainhower entered her life. Together they published the historical novel Dollmaker and seven other titles. In April 2018, Bonnie was diagnosed with breast cancer and started therapy immediately. Her Friend, James, purchased a home in Arizona and moved with the promise of moving Bonnie to his new digs following treatments. Bonnie relocated to Sunsites, AZ in early 2020 and once again, life looked bright. She lost her pet schnauzer of 18 years, Pepper, later that year. She was inconsolable. Merry Puppens entered her life as a gift from the heavens and life was made right once more. But the scourge of cancer had different plans. It returned with a vengeance and treatment was again the order of the day. Bonnie struggled like the champion she was, but she could grapple no longer, spending the last two months of her life a prisoner in a hospital bed. You remain a serious contender and your strength goes undiminished.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 6, 2024, at Richardson Benson Mortuary, 725 East 4th St., Benson, Arizona 85602 starting at 12 noon. Burial will follow at the Pearce, Arizona Cemetery at 2 PM. The Pearce Cemetery is located approximately 22 miles south of Interstate 10 travelling on Highway 191 and is approximately 46 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border.

Bonnie was preceded in death by her parents, Keith Arnold Barrigar and Dorothy Maxine (Avery) Barrigar. She is survived by her older brother Alan Barrigar and Sandi (Hummel) Barrigar, Alan’s wife, and her older sister, Diane (Barrigar) Maringer.

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