Bonita “Bonnie” Marie Haubrich, née Kelty, age 87, of Quincy, Illinois, died May 6, 2026. She was born February 18, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, lovingly adopted by Thomas and Viola (Bohne) Kelty of Quincy, the eldest of Tom and Vi’s three children (the late Thomas Jr. and the late David Kelty). Bonnie married Ron Haubrich, the love of her life, on June 14, 1958. Together they raised a boisterous brood of five children (The Five).
As an adult, Bonnie found it important to locate her birth family. With Ron’s assistance, Bonnie and Ron travelled throughout Missouri, in search of adoption records at court houses and hospitals, until finding the name of Bonnie’s birth mother, Ruth Boucher. At the time of this detective work (early-mid 1980s), adoption cases were closely guarded affairs, compelling Ron to create several ruses to gain access to the necessary information. These ultimately successful escapades further cemented Ron and Bonnie’s identity as a dynamic duo of love and partnership.
While Bonnie remained a devoted daughter to Tom and Vi, she relished getting to know her birth mother, Ruth, and Ruth’s lineage. She grew close to Ruth and Ruth’s family, especially her half-sister, Mary Bliss, furthering Bonnie’s solid sense of self and identity.
After graduating from Notre Dame High School in 1957, Bonnie was employed at Lammers Optical before she and Ron wedded. With the exception of a ten-year stint as a secretary at the family business, P.A.M. Printers, her focus became her family and parish/community engagement.
Physically active in her youth, Bonnie retained that athletic spirit as a mom – water skiing, ice skating, bicycling, swimming in the backyard pool, and even coaching softball at St. John’s for several years. When her offspring made friends with the kids throughout the neighboring subdivisions, Bonnie would host AND play football in the front yard with the rowdy kids, inviting them all in after the game for customized Chef Boyardi Pizzas. She made sure the Haubrich House was a welcoming destination for everyone.
Bonnie could set an elegant table (if it wasn’t ruined by 2 year old Mary Kay climbing the table to dive into the freshly iced chocolate layer cake before guests arrived!), pull together a yummy picnic (braunschweiger salad sandwich, anyone?), fix a special birthday dinner for each of The Five, bake up a Christmas cookie storm with Grandma Kelty (and try to find the perfect hiding place so cookies weren’t gobbled up on day one), and create fancy card table menus for Club – just don’t ever ask her to bake a pie! Go to Sprouts for that.
With a friendly and outgoing manner, Bonnie was engaged in several service and social endeavors at St. John’s/Blessed Sacrament parishes as well as the community-at-large. From being active with PTA, acting as a Brownie Leader, serving as a lector at Sunday Mass, to proudly cavorting with three Red Hat Clubs, and her fun/fundraising efforts with Beta Sigma Phi, she led a full life.
Once The Five flew the coop, she melded her sense of service with her penchant for shopping, becoming the buyer for St. Mary’s Hospital Gift Shop, and when St. Mary’s merged with Blessing Hospital in 1993, that gift shop too.
Amid all the family ruckus and community commitments, Bonnie also made time to cultivate her creative side. She was a voracious reader, sang in St. John’s choir with her mom and dad, played the piano (instilling her love of music in all her kids), took up (and dropped!) several crafts, and was a talented seamstress – it helped that her brother Tom owned a sewing machine shop. She made a lot of the girls’ clothes, from Easter outfits to prom dresses. She’d fret that she had Nothing to Wear! on a special date night with Ron so she’d rush to the fabric shop and whip up a beautiful dress in one afternoon, looking as stylish as Jackie Kennedy.
There were travels too – when the family was young, Bonnie and Ron would pack up the station wagon, sometimes with the motorboat on a trailer and always a week’s worth of meals that Bonnie had cooked and frozen, freeing her from cooking while on vacation. Trips were taken to lakes and rivers and mountains. Later, Bonnie and Ron took up snow skiing and there were several high times with the Quincy Ski Club. They also loved heading to beaches in Mexico, where they made travel friends. There were cruises and tours to Alaska, Germany, and Italy where they enjoyed new surroundings and customs. When Ron’s Alzheimer’s settled in, they made one last trek together to Niagara Falls, where they’d honeymooned decades earlier. This accounting would be remiss if it did not mention the several Bonnie Birthday trips to Florida with her daughters, daughters-in-law, and Lily, soaking up the sun, laughing a lot, and flirting with the cabana boys.
Bonnie had an abiding faith and was a lifelong Roman Catholic. Her parents, the Kelty’s, “found” her with the help of her uncle, Monsignor Leo Kelty, at a Kansas City orphanage. She was a longtime member of St. John the Baptist Parish until it closed in 2006, and a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish, always ready to lector and serve as an eucharistic minister. She attended St. John’s grade school, received her first communion, was married, and had her children baptized there.
Bonnie is survived by her five children and their spouses/partners: Ann Haubrich (Art Dwyer) of St. Louis; Sherry Haubrich Ellis (Gary Ellis) of Kansas City; Tim Haubrich (Kristie Bigelow Haubrich) of Quincy; Tony Haubrich (Debby Rhinberger) of Quincy; Mary Haubrich (Christine Livingston) of Kansas City; Karn Krenz Haubrich of Quincy; and foster daughter, Linda Hendricks Reckers, of Moncks Corner, SC.
Grandchildren: Wess, Reed (Hannah), granddaughter-in-law Michelle, Aaron (Brittany); Matthew Ellis and Nalir Ellis; Lily Livingston Haubrich; and great grandchildren Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Israel, Chase, Daegen, and Eloise.
She is also survived by her brother- and sister-in-law Joe and Joan Haubrich of Quincy, as well as her uncle, Bill Boucher of Bella Vista, Arkansas, brothers- and sisters-in-law, numerous cousins, most notably Charlotte (Timpe) Buckman, nieces, nephews, neighbors, friends, and caregivers, especially Diane Frankenhoff and the loving team at Good Samaritan.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ron; grandsons, Justin Haubrich and Zakery Haubrich; her brothers Thomas Kelty Jr. and David Kelty; her sister Mary Bliss Stubblefield; her parents, Tom and Viola Kelty; and her birth mother, Ruth (Boucher) Pogue.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 9:30 a.m., Duker & Haugh Funeral Home and 10:00 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Private interment in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Wednesday evening from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at Duker & Haugh Funeral Home.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Haubrich Family Endowed Scholarship at Quincy Notre Dame, Teresa Adams House/Blessing Foundation, or Camp Callahan.