Bonnie Janzen

Bonnie Samuelson Janzen was born March 25, 1948, in Concordia, Kansas to Gus and Vida (Wallace) Samuelson, and went to meet them on April 11, 2025, after a very short battle with cancer.

Bonnie, with her older sister, Dixie, moved with their parents to a series of small Kansas towns, finally settling in Palco, where the girls would both graduate from high school. While still in high school, Bonnie worked in a local café, when a custom cutting crew pulled into town from Medford, Oklahoma. Among the cutters was a young man, not much older than Bonnie, and a long-distance romance began. Bonnie and her harvest hand ,Argyle were married on April 15th, 1967, and eventually found their way to Medford, where Argyle began farming with his dad.

In 1968 their daughter, Michelle was born, followed by her little brother, Travis, in 1974. Bonnie quickly became a farmer's wife and all that entailed, taking her small children with her – to pick up parts, take meals to the field (that always included a table and chairs at her mother-in-law's insistence), and driving the wheat truck when necessary.

As the kids got older and during the less busy farming time, mom worked at the Country Inn Restaurant, Friendly’s Pizza, and the Country Corner Café. She made life-long friends with those she worked with. Of course, there were other ventures as well, usually instigated by Argyle. For a time, they raised parakeets, owned the OTASCO store (more life-long friends), bottle-fed Holstein babies (sometimes forty at a time) from a makeshift kitchen in the barn, and she drove a school bus, all the while still playing the role of the farmer’s wife.

Even after Argyle retired from farming and his job driving the grader for Grant County District 1, Bonnie continued to work, this time at the grocery store in Medford. Through different owners, she once again made more life-long friends. She was finally “forced” to retire when she and Argyle moved to Cherokee to be closer to Michelle. Her last few years were spent lovingly taking care of Argyle who suffered from advancing dementia.

Family was important to Bonnie, both immediate and extended. Every Thanksgiving was spent at her grandmother’s house in northern Kansas with a host of her cousins. She looked forward to that trip every year. She never failed to send birthday cards to nieces and nephews when they were young. She enjoyed trips to Colorado to see her parents, or they came and stayed for a week before they moved to Medford, and traveling to Joplin to see her sister. She was fiercely proud of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and was known to brag about them to anyone who would listen.

Bonnie was diagnosed with cancer the same week as Argyle’s funeral. She was willing to fight, but it had already spread, and there was nothing that could be done. After a short hospital stay, Bonnie went home with hospice. She waited for family members to be able to arrive to say goodbye. She passed like she did everything else in life. She always worked hard to get the job done so she could relax and enjoy the good things.

Bonnie is preceded in death by her husband, Argyle; her parents, Gus and Vida Samuelson; her mother and father-in-law, Marvin and Regina Janzen; her sister, Dixie Mangum and her husband, Ken; an infant brother, Gus Leroy Samuelson, and her brother-in-law, Al Cooper.

She is survived by her daughter, Michelle Penner and husband, Mike; son, Travis and wife, Charleen of Cimarron, Kansas; brother-in-law, Duaine Janzen and wife, Linda of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and sister-in-law, Vivian Cooper of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

She is also survived by five grandchildren: Mitch Penner and wife, Lisa of Burlington, Chelsey Riley and husband, Jeff of Yukon, Jordan Penner of Cherokee, Coby Janzen and wife, Grace of Mineola, Kansas, and Luke Janzen and fiancé, Jacee of Cimarron, Kansas.

Bonnie was also blessed with great-grandchildren: Brantley, Gracelyn, August (Gus), Samuel (Sammy), Peter, Viola, soon to be Oliver, and one more on the way, many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Memorials may be made through the funeral home to benefit the Medford Ambulance Service.

Memorial service for Bonnie will be Friday, April 18, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. at the Medford Nazarene Church. Arrangements are by Lanman Funeral Home, Inc. of Medford. www.lanmanfuneralhome.com Facebook: Lanman Funeral Home Inc.