Bonnie Lee Higgins Dalton April 4, 1928 ~ April 23, 2026

Bonnie Lee Higgins Dalton, 98, passed away peacefully in her home in Monticello, UT on April 23, 2026. She was born April 4, 1928, in Alexander, KS. The second child of Frank Henry Higgins and Vyrl Iris Flack Higgins, Bonnie had one older sister and three younger brothers.
Bonnie is a member of what is sometimes called “The Greatest Generation”-- a child of the Great Depression of the 1930’s and a young adult during World War II in the early 1940’s.
Her family lived in the tiny town of Alexander until she was almost ten years old ,where her father ran a gas station as well as hauled freight with a team of horses and a Dray wagon.
Because of the severe economic depression, the family moved from Kansas to Colorado looking for better opportunities for work. They were among the thousands of people in the same situation who moved West with more hope than money.
The Higgins family loaded all their belongings in their truck and pulled a small trailer that contained the belongings of another family traveling with them.
She and her sister rode in the car with this other family. Bonnie was carsick most of the trip. After ten days, the two families arrived in Cahone, CO on Bonnie’s 10th birthday.
The Higgins family lived in a one-room house. The three older children walked one and half miles to school carrying their lunches in lard buckets. Her father hauled pinto beans for local farmers.
Bonnie and her sister and brother helped load the heavy sacks of beans onto trucks, as well as hoed weeds in the bean fields. They only had shoes in the wintertime. Her mother made Bonnie and her sister two dresses once a year at the beginning of the school year. That was the extent of their wardrobe.
She attended high school in Dove Creek part of her freshman year. Because it was wartime, the family moved to Pueblo, CO, and then to Nucla and then Naturita, where her father obtained work as a carpenter. She finished her freshman year at Naturita.
The family moved back to Dove Creek when her father was able to find work as a carpenter in that area. Bonnie graduated from high school in Dove Creek in 1946.
After high school, Bonnie and her sister attended Fort Lewis College in Hesperus, CO. She was working as a waitress in the cafeteria when she met a young Navy veteran from Monticello, UT, Melvin K. Dalton.
He had recently returned from serving in the Pacific islands during the war. Melvin and Bonnie eloped and got married in Aztec, NM on April 9, 1947. They decided not to continue with college, and headed to Monticello and Montezuma Canyon, where Melvin resumed cattle ranching.
Bonnie lived in cow camps with Melvin at the East Pines in Colorado and on Cedar Point near Dove Creek. They also homesteaded in lower Montezuma Canyon.
Bonnie cared for her babies without electricity, running water, or indoor bathrooms. She suffered severe morning sickness throughout each of her pregnancies.
Bonnie and Melvin became the parents of two boys and three girls (Val, Linda, Gail, Wade, and Amber). She ruled her little roost with a warm heart, a firm hand, a sense of humor, and an Irish temper.
Out of necessity, Bonnie canned a lot of food for her family and raised the babies on canned evaporated milk. She did laundry with a tub and washboard until Melvin eventually was able to provide her with a wringer washing machine. She was happy about that.
In 1954, Melvin moved Bonnie and the kids to Monticello so Val could attend first grade. Their first home in town was a small house just south of the Community Church.
They later built a home in the northwest part of Monticello. Bonnie kept busy raising her family and supporting Melvin in his business ventures -- cattle and horse ranching, and mining.
When Melvin and the kids were herding cattle from Cedar Point through Dove Creek and onto the Pines, Bonnie brought lunches -- big, delicious lunches. She did that a lot at other times, as well.
Once she even brought out an entire Thanksgiving dinner when the family was working cattle on a Thanksgiving Day.
She enjoyed working for a time at the San Juan County Library in Monticello, and also served for many years as the LDS primary secretary, even though she was not a member of the LDS Church at the time.
Talented at crocheting all kinds of things, Bonnie made hundreds of hats from yarn donated to her. Her hats are probably being worn by people in many countries throughout the world.
Bonnie was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 3, 1990. They were sealed in the Manti Temple on September 4, 1996.
Melvin died a few weeks after their 50th wedding anniversary. The past 29 years she was anxious to have “Melvin come and get me”.
Bonnie is preceded in death by her parents, sister Norma Jean Ragsdale, brothers Leonard Glenn Higgins, James Owen Higgins, and Dennis Ray Higgins, and son-in-law Sandy Johnson.
She is survived by her children Melvin Val (Aleta) Dalton, Linda Lee (Lynn) Patterson, Gail Lynn Johnson, Wade Keith (Arah) Dalton, and Amber Kay Dalton, as well as 18 grandchildren, 52 great grandchildren, and 15 great-great grandchildren.

CARD OF THANKS:

We appreciate the many people who have been so kind and good to our mother over the years, especially the past few years when she needed extra attention and care.
Coby Christensen and the staff at Zions Way have been especially helpful.
We appreciate the kind service provided to us from the San Juan Mortuary.
A special thanks to Denise Frost, who brought Jewel Adams to visit Mom faithfully every month for so many years.
And to Elaine Barry, thank you for the countless times you came to Mom’s house to do her hair and visit with her. She loved you and loved your visits.
Thanks also to Tauna Larson for the attention and friendship she extended to Mom.
We appreciate all the hugs, texts, cards, flowers, and phone calls.
You have blessed her life and our lives, too. Thank you.

The Bonnie Dalton Family
Val & Aleta Dalton, Linda and Lynn Patterson, Gail Johnson, Wade and Arah Dalton,
and Amber Dalton