Alma Bonnema

A memorial service will be held Tuesday at 2:30pm at the Bethel Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center with Rev. Duane Tinklenberg officiating. Interment will be held prior to the memorial service in Lebanon Cemetery of rural Sioux Center.

A prayer service will be held Tuesday at 1pm at the Bethel Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center.

Visitation will be held Monday at the Bethel Christian Reformed Church from 4pm-8pm, with the family present from 6pm-8pm.

The Bonnema Family prefers memorials to the Alzheimers Association.



Alma Johanna Huenink was born October 3, 1918, to Henry and Ella Huenink near Hickman, Nebraska. She was the oldest daughter of seven children. As a baby, she survived the flue epidemic of the early 1900s. She attended a country school in Lancaster County, Nebraska, through the eighth grade.

As a young woman, she moved with her older brother to Sioux County, Iowa, to work at a cousins farm. One of the stories that she would tell her children was about all the food that they prepared in the fall for the threshers. At the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church Young Peoples Society, she met Rich Bonnema, a young farmer from the Lebanon Area. Rich and Alma were married on February 15, 1944, at Almas parents home near Hickman, Nebraska. They began their life together on a farm purchased near Richs parents. In 1945, WWII intervened, and Rich spent part of the war in basic training in Little Rock, Arkansas, before going to Tokyo, Japan. Alma worked and lived in Little Rock while he was stationed there. After the war, they returned to their farm and continued farming until the late 1980s.

Alma was a typical Iowa farmers wife. She ran the household while hauling loads of corn in the fall, driving the bailer, doing part of the chores, and raising her family. After the girls were out of the house, she served as a VFW Lavender Lady volunteering at the Hospital and spent one day a week working at the Sioux Center Sale Barn.

Alma enjoyed embroidering and quilting. She attended a lot of classes for sewing and tailoring and made many of the clothes for herself and her family. She loved to travel, and Rich and Alma spend a good part of their retirement going to Texas in the winter and visiting their grandchildren around the United States.

Alma was called home to be with God on Friday, September 5 at the age of 89. Alma is preceded in death by her husband Rich in April of 2005. Together, they shared 61 years and we celebrate that they are again reunited.

Alma is preceded in death by two brothers, Gerrit and Preston Huenink. She is survived by her three daughters, and two son-in-laws, Vicki and Wayne De Jong of Oskaloosa, Iowa, Sharlene Bonnema of Sioux City, Iowa, and Arliss and Ken Dokter of Sioux Center, Iowa, seven grandchildren and their spouses, and thirteen great-grandchildren; one brother and sister-in-law, Alvin & Dorothy Huenink Holland, NE and three sisters and brothers-in-law, Henrietta and Owen Liesveld Holland, NE Dorothy and Robert Mulder of Firth, NE, and Darlene & Les Heitbrink of Firth, NE, and sister-in-law, Henrietta Huenink of Steen, MN. Some of her last greatest moments were visits from her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their haven of rest. Psalm 107:29,30