Fred N. Bonine
Oct. 21, 1863-Aug. 22, 1941
Niles Daily Star (Niles, Berrien Co., MI), Saturday, August 23,1941, page 1, col. 7-8, continued page 2, col. 4-5, microfilm Niles District Library
DR. FRED N. BONINE STRICKEN
Eye Specialist, Sportsman Dies After 3rd Stroke
Loss Mourned by Thousands of Patients Treated in 50 year Career;
Service 2:30 Monday in Trinity Church
Dr. Fred N. Bonine, who for more than a half-century made Niles the mecca of the afflicted, is dead. . .[illegible] . Midnight Friday night in the Bonine home at 911 South Third street. Patients to whom he brought relief from physical and mental pain and countless friends are mourning with his family his loss today.
Early this morning the somber news of his death was flashing from metropolis to hamlet, penthouse to backwoods shack, continent to continent from whence had come the countless thousands who in that half-century had filed into his humble Mains street office for help.
Critical Since June
Dr. Bonine, who retired June 25, 1938, because of failing health had been in critical condition since early June. It was then that he suffered the third of a series of strokes that left him continually weakened. He had been treated on several occasions in Pawating hospital but several weeks ago returned to his home for the last time.
With him at the time of his death was Mrs. Bonine, the former Viva Thomas. Surviving with Mrs. Bonine is their only child, Mrs. Willard French, Detroit, the former Natalie Bonine. He also leaves two grandchildren, Mrs. Joel H. Prescott, Jr., and Sherwin Bonine French, and a great grandson, Joel H. Prescott, all of Detroit.
Body to Lie in State
Before the service, countless friends will pass by his casket, to lie in state in the church sanctuary from noon until the funeral.
The body is now at the Pifer funeral home where friends may call until the casket is removed to the church Monday noon.
Dr. Bonine was Niles' most distinguished citizen.
To those whose cases were hopeless, he spoke words of comfort and brought relief from both physical and mental pain. Thousands in all parts of the world today remember the kindly physician as a friend. Their grief for him is genuine.
The Niles physician's fame was not limited to his professional skill. In the world of sports he achieved records that have come down, many of them unbroken, through more than 50 years. Boxing and foot racing were his favorites.
Lodgemen Mourn
At the Elks' Club where he often chatted for hours with a group of old friends there was mourning today. From distant cities came messages of sympathy to the bereaved widow and family. In the unpretentious little offices over the Dean Drug store there was gloom and despondency, “The good doctor” was dead.
The son of the late Dr. Evan J. Bonine, Dr. Fred Bonine was born in Niles, east of the terminal in the old Loban Harter residence, Oct. 21, 1863. He lived for many years in the Bonine family home at Fourth and Ferry Streets.
He attended Niles high school, but completed his early education in Freiburg, Germany. Afterward, he was graduated from the University of Michigan medical school, (Continued on Page Two)
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then returned to Europe and took graduate work in London and Paris, specializing in eye, ear, nose and throat. . .