Patricia Bonnell Cohenour

Patty Bonnell Cohenour, beloved mother, wife, and Bee, died at home in Nichols Hills surrounded by her family on December 27, 2023 following a brave six year battle with Stage IV cancer. Her death came at 11:55 pm, minutes before the end of her 51st anniversary. She was a true warrior, never complaining, always making friends with staff along the way. If you’re reading this, she probably loved you, too. We knew her time with us was limited when she didn’t make the annual pilgrimage to OU-Texas as she did for five decades come what may. Her last trip of a lifetime of travel was to Seattle, for a celebration of life for brother Bill Bonnell, the last remaining member of her immediate family. She kept her chin up, whatever the circumstances. Sooner Nation has gained a devoted guardian angel.

Patty was born August 23, 1946 in La Jolla, California, the bright-eyed youngest and first girl of three to Oklahoma City native Caroline McEldowney and husband Henry Stambaugh Bonnell (Youngstown, OH). She grew up on Camden Way with her dear cousins, Ann & Mia McEldowney, nearby, and her first friends, Sally and Sue Phillips, down the block. She loved her hometown wildly like she loved her Sooners and her church family at All Souls’ Episcopal, which she attended with her mom since its early days as a  Sunday School in Kite Park. She attended Nichols Hills Elementary and graduated from Harding High in 1964 and the University of Oklahoma in 1968. She married the love of her life Kent Cohenour at Casady School on December 27, 1972; her kids grew up there.

Patty devoted her life to her family and dear friends. She served on many reunion boards, and gave to many philanthropic causes, especially the arts like her grandmother Caroline Stambaugh Snyder; she served as the Chairman of All Souls’ Alter Guild, the Vice President of the Junior League, and Chairman of the Alumnae Advisory Committee (AAC), inspiring a decade of classes of Pi Beta Phis. She won Panhellenic Woman of the Year in 1999, but she probably never told you about it. Her curiosity led her to have varied hobbies and interests including reading, tradition, Palm Springs, daily crypto quotes, traveling, 20th century cinema, fashion, cards, Mahjong, the beach, the nightly news, and never missing a sporting event of her nearest and dearest, even lately when her health might have deterred her. Her classmates, kids, and their friends universally adored Patty Bonnell. Easy to love with her gentle being and kind nature, giving of herself came easily to her, and she always made everyone she met feel like the most important person in the room. She was and is the quintessential lady.

Preceding her in death are mother Caroline McEldowney Bonnell (Nichols Hills, OK), father Henry Stambaugh Bonnell (Santa Cruz, CA) and stepmother Mikell Mouw Bonnell (Deerfield, IA), older brothers Robert Stambaugh Bonnell (Aiea, HI) and William McEldowney Bonnell (Shoreline, WA), cousin Mia McEldowney (Vashon, WA), and yellow labs Pearl and Callie. She is survived by husband Kent Cohenour (Nichols Hills, OK), daughter Caroline Bonnell Cohenour and Brian Barber (Oklahoma City, OK), son Christopher William and wife Reistle Holliday Cohenour (Oklahoma City, OK), cousin Ann McEldowney and Cress Cresswell (Austin, TX), grandsons Jaicks Henry and Lincoln Holliday Cohenour (Oklahoma City, OK), and sister-in-law Kay Seymour and husband Mike Seymour (Edmond, OK), nieces Caledonia Ross Bonnell (Bend, OR) and Natalie Seymour Tishkowski and husband Greg (Fort Collins, CO), nephews Robert Stambaugh Bonnell (Aiea, HI) and Michael Seymour and wife Kim Seymour (Edmond, OK), five great-nephews, three great-nieces, friends too numerous to name, and dog Tilly, who all miss her terribly.