Bonnie J. Clay

Bonnie J. Clay, 83, of Wakefield, Nebraska, died on Thursday, April.4, 2024 at Providence Medical Center in Wayne, NE. A visitation for Bonnie will be held on Thursday, April 11, 2024, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., with a prayer service at 7:00 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Church in Wakefield. The funeral service will be held on Friday, April 12, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. at Salem Lutheran Church with Pastor Ernesto Medina officiating. The burial will be at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, April 12, 2024, at the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Springview, NE. Munderloh - Smith Funeral Home in Wakefield is in charge of the services.

Bonnie was born December 19th, 1940 to Verner and Doris Gustafson in Stromsburg, Nebraska. She was raised on a farm with her sisters Elaine and Betty and brother Marvin who was known as Whitey. She attended country school in her youth and went to Stromsburg High School where she was a cheerleader and played saxophone in the school band. She graduated in 1958. After high school, she worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service for 6 years. During this time she met Larry Clay and the two were married on April 13th, 1963. They moved to Wakefield inAugust of 1966.After her two children, Mike and Kristal, started elementary school, she went to work at Education Service Unit No. 1 in 1974. She worked there as a media specialist until her retirement in 2002.

After retirement, she enjoyed baking, quilting, sewing, embroidery, painting, ceramics, gardening, and having coffee and visiting with friends. She loved watching sports, especially the Husker football and volleyball teams. She cherished the time she got to spend with her family, especially her grandsons.

To those that knew her, Bonnie will be remembered for her positive attitude that was unflagging even in the face of adversity and her contagious laughter that filled a room. Her nieces and nephews will cherish the memories of sitting and visiting with her on the porch at the cabin in Springview. We hope that now she is sitting on that porch in heaven, enjoying hearing the wind blow through the pines, the barn swallows and bluebirds singing, the coyotes howling, and the calls of the great-horned owls just as she did in life.

She was preceded in death by her mother, father, her brother Whitey, and her brother-in-law Harl.

She is survived by her husband Larry, her sisters Elaine Hennings of Shelby, Nebraska and Betty (Dennis) Berger of Houston, Texas, her son Mike (Carla) Clay of Wakefield, her daughter Kristal (Mike) Bechtold of Ord, Nebraska, her grandsons Lane Clay of La Habra, California, Chad Clay of Akron, Iowa, Brant (Shelby) Bechtold of Ord, Brooks (Breanna) Bechtold and their daughter, Addison of DeWitt, Iowa, and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, April 12th at 10 a.m. at Salem Lutheran Church in Wakefield. Burial will follow at 3 p.m. at Mount Hope Cemetery in Springview, Nebraska.