Yakima Herald Republic, 14 March 2007

YAKIMA–Eloise Viola Bonett, 93, passed away Sunday, March 11, 2007 at Arbor House Care Facility. Born in 1914 in Yakima, Washington to McKinney Dow Lambert and Bessie (Meredith) Lambert, Eloise was the second eldest of four siblings.

It may have been in the summer of 1924 when Eloise began a life-long love for camping and exploring. That summer, while her father, the Assistant Chief of the Yakima Fire Department, worked in Yakima, the rest of the family camped along the river near Naches Pass. On Fridays Dow would bring fresh food for the following week, and spend the weekend with his family. They put up a large tent, and Eloise and her two sisters slept on a bed of pine needles, while her mother and her infant brother slept on a mattress they brought up from Yakima. Eloise described the experience as a wonderful adventure of playing in the woods and the river for the entire summer.

When her father retired in 1929, the family moved to Wapato, where her parents bought a small grocery store across the street from the three schools. The schools had no cafeterias in those days, so her father built a lunchroom addition to the store where they served school lunches. The schools even staggered the lunch periods to accommodate the lunches. According to Eloise the lunch room was a huge success. Eloise graduated from Wapato High School with the class of 1933.

In 1934 Eloise, along with her mother and the two younger siblings, moved back to Yakima, where she helped her mother operate a small cafe. In 1941 the family moved to Seattle, where Eloise lived for the next 50 years.

In 1945 she married Glen Bonett in Seattle. Eloise and Glen were avid campers and cross-country travelers, and when they adopted Rusty, their faithful Pomeranian, in 1959, he traveled everywhere they did for the next 15 years. They traveled extensively around the United States and into Canada, and Eloise collected postcards and took pictures to chronicle their travels.

A couple years after Glen died in 1991, Eloise returned to Yakima and moved in with her brother, McKinney Dow Lambert, Jr. She and Dow made several trips east to meet distant relatives and conduct genealogical research. After Dow suffered a stroke in 2002, they both moved to Sun Tower, where their eldest sister, Wilma, had lived since 1997.

In later years, Eloise was an avid reader of mystery and romance novels, often reading one or more a day. She enjoyed working jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, crocheting, and sharing memories with her family. She liked her steak very rare, and her ice cream very cold. She had an insatiable sweet tooth, but a miraculous metabolism that let her eat a pint of ice cream every day and never gain a pound. Blessed with the memory of an elephant, Eloise was the authoritative source for answers to questions about early Lambert family history.

After surviving brain surgery in 1971, and breast cancer in 1995, failing strength in late 2005 ended many years of independent living, and Eloise settled in comfortably and happily at Arbor House with an unlimited supply of romance novels, ice cream, and 24-hour service.

Eloise was preceded in death by her sisters Lana Schindler and Wilma Dunn, brother M. Dow Lambert Jr., her parents, husband, and beloved dog, Rusty.

Although childless, Eloise enjoyed the company of her three nieces, Sharon (Howard) Anderson, Valerie (Jack) Stephenson, Susie (Dennis) Kugler, and three nephews, Steve (Gale), Mike, and Dow (Marlene) Lambert.

At her request there will be no services.