Ms. Bonnie S. Clifford's Obituary
In the early afternoon of Friday, April 24, 2020, Bonnie Sue Clifford, age 74, answered the call to come home. She passed peacefully at the TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee after a brief illness.
Born in East Lynn, West Virginia, Bonnie moved to Cleveland, Ohio during her early childhood, and she graduated from Cleveland’s Collinwood High School in 1964. It was at a bakery on 152nd street where she worked her first job. Bonnie eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she built a successful career in consumer finance, retiring from HSBC in 2009.
Bonnie loved porch swings, daisies, Chanel No. 5, and her family. She also loved the Lord from an early age, and she carried this love throughout her life. Bonnie served faithfully as the secretary of the ladies’ group, Amazing Grace Circle, and as the treasurer of the scholarship committee at the Glen Leven Presbyterian Church, where she was a member for many years. She was also a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary.
Her family describes her as warm, generous, soft-spoken, compassionate, attentive, observant, smart, and funny, but not one to be trifled with. When she was pushed to the edge, you would surely know about it, and she was sometimes, in her words, wild as a haint. In her journal, she wrote that one of the most important lessons she learned in her life was to “speak up and be heard.” She said, “God gave you a voice and intended for you to make the best use of it.”
Bonnie was preceded in death by her father, Elmer Carey; her mother, Thelma Carey; her husband, Donald Clifford; her son Tsali Colton, and her siblings, Patricia Collier, Betty Collier, and Denver Roger Carey. She is survived by her children, Kathy Quinn, John Williams (Lisa), and Matt Clifford (Laura); her grandchildren, Steven Stewart, (Joanna) Jessica Steward, Calla Quinn, Taylor Kamara (Myles), Tyler Donovan (Nick), Riley Williams, Carys Clifford,Margot Clifford, Zayne Logsdon, Zack Logsdon, Zavier Logsdon; and her great-grandchildren, Brianna Stewart, Jasmine Stewart, Steven Stewart Jr., and Karter Kamara.
A private burial will take place Wed April 29 in the Historic Spring Hill Cemetery. Donations can be made to the scholarship fund at Glen Leven Presbyterian, 3906 Franklin Pike, Nashville, TN, 37204, in lieu of flowers.
Arrangements entrusted to Spring Hill Funeral Home & Cemetery, 5110 Gallatin Road, Nashville, TN 37216.
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