A Personal Remembrance of Bonnie Netherton

By Star Woodward

Last week, one of my dearest oldest friends made her transition into non-physical. She is now Pure Positive Energy. That is a belief that we shared, and I just have to know it’s true.

Gail Frances Richter was born on July 17, 1945 in New York City; though when her Nana saw her and said “such a Bonnie baby,” the name stuck! Bonnie Netherton died on the evening of June 9, 2026. Beside her were Trey Anderson, and her son Cass with his wife and two kids, Eve and Eli.

Bonnie surely had joie de vivre. She made the most out of anything in front of her, and she always made everything she touched more beautiful. She touched a lot of people in her life with her generosity and joy and welcoming spirit and her magical smile.

Bonnie was a magical being. When she was eight, she and her big sister Mike did some magic in order to create a little sister. Turns out, Mike knew a little bit more than Bonnie about biology, because part of the magic included poking a hole in a rubber in the bedside table of their parents. Baby sister Cricket was born nine months later.

When Bonnie and I lived in St. Simons Island, Georgia, there was a Chinese junk out of the marina that we always had to go look at. We took all our guests there and took pictures of it. And then one day, it just sunk. Bonnie really, really wanted that boat. It took about fifteen years, but she did eventually get herself a Chinese junk!

Long before she got that boat, after we had moved down to the Florida Keys, she got herself a full-size school bus. She outfitted it herself with antiques she had inherited from her merchant mariner father and grandfather. The most prized ones ended up in the boat.

She was in Red Dyke Theatre in Atlanta, and she was also very involved with the lesbian variety show in Gainesville. One of her favorite roles that she performed both places was “Bonnie Blameless,” selling emotional insurance to lesbian couples who clearly had no business being together!

She was also an avid reader. I remember when we were together in the early days, how funny it would be to find her with a stack of books on the bed, reading one, two others open-faces beside her. She wished she could put them under her pillow or under her arm and just absorb more information. At the time it was Mary Daly and Jane Roberts.

Bonnie loved women and loved lesbian community! I think her most proud thing was what she was able to create at Sugarloaf. I don’t know if it was easy for her, but Bonnie could take almost any space and make it not just more beautiful, but very beautiful. She and Trey did it at the mermaid Inn in Fort Lauderdale, and she did it with whoever was around to help her at Sugarloaf Womyns’s Village. And while creating and renovating, she was also making so many women feel welcome there. I’ve heard that from so many. No one felt like they were visiting Sugarloaf, they felt like they were coming home and Bonnie was there for them.

She loved playing cards and was known as the queen of nasty canasty, what we called canasta. She was a beautiful high femme, with a power tool. She was elegant, but sometimes loud and bossy. She was opinionated, but she would stop and listen to what you had to say. She was tender to the bone. She never got to have much of a relationship with her sons, but Aimee was like a daughter to her, even though she didn’t reach out much. Like a lot of us she was full of contradictions, but her sincere smile will stay with us.

Bonnie always loved cats, and though I don’t think she had one when she lived on the school bus, she did have one on her boat. One of the things she missed the most when she was in assisted-living towards the end of her life was cat energy. But she still had her sense of humor! She commented on the nice ass of more of an aid, showing her humor as well as her still good appreciation of women.

She always believed that we are more than our physical bodies. She was very into Seth and Abraham. She was a powerful deliberate creator as well as lesbian feminism. It may seem an odd combination, but it worked in her!

The last three years of her life, she lived in a little trailer on Trey’s land just outside of Gainesville. There, she was embraced by old friends who eventually took care of her in her last months. Beckie, Madeline, Lynda Lou, Orit, Marilyn. And Aimee and Eileen and Quay. Trey was “her person,” there for her every day.

This is very personal and doesn’t include all the people that Bonnie loved and that loved her. There are more stories! Hopefully we will all keep telling them to each other. Bonnie had many friends and lovers over the years. So many adventures that I don’t even know about.

So, if you knew her at all, she is there with you right now. She is whispering in your ear that you are good enough just the way you are. She is telling you that she sees your beauty. If you are sad, she is saying “There, there, everything will be OK.” She is probably also saying something silly!

When you read this, try to remember your happiest moments of her, and that’s how she would like to be remembered, I’m so sure.

My Beautiful Bonnie By the Sea.

Bonnie Netherton Obituary