Bonnie Jean Risso

Bonnie Risso, 80, of Grants Pass, died Saturday, April 13, 2013 after a brief illness. She was born to the late Tom and Clyo Blakley on February 11, 1933 in Montezuma, Iowa. She graduated from Wilson High School in Cedar Rapids. Shortly thereafter she married Kenneth Johnson who became Superintendent of Schools of Guttenburg Iowa. They had two sons, Mark and Eric. After the death of her husband in 1961, she and her two sons moved to Carmichael, California to start a new life near her sister and husband. She was courted for several years by Ray Risso of Fairfield and in 1971 they were married. After 18 years of wedded bliss in Carmichael they started a new home in Vacaville. Over the next several years Bonnie enjoyed her additional Italian family, Italian cooking, and volunteering at the local hospital emergency room where she spoiled the staff and EMT's with her famous sticky buns and other baked delights. At the loss of her beloved Raymond in 2006, Bonnie soon moved to be close to her two sons in Grants Pass, OR. She enjoyed new friendships and family at Spring Meadows Retirement Center and the Newman Methodist Church. She will be remembered for her quick wit, her frankness, her love for her family, and her everlasting love for her beloved Ray. Bonnie is survived by her two sons and their wives, Mark and Cheryl and Eric and Kelli; her sisters Betty Bever of San Diego, CA and Barbara Zahradnik of Cedar Rapids, IA; her grandson Matt and his wife Nicole and great-grandsons, Colby and Beckett; her grandson Blake and his wife Crystal and great-granddaughter Riley Grace. Bonnie will be greatly missed by us all.