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Bonnie Prestine Copeland Sowa, age 87, of Bainbridge, Georgia, passed away Monday, October 16, 2023. The Funeral Mass will be held at 2:00 pm on Thursday, October 19, 2023 at St. Joseph Catholic Church with Father Tomas Beroch officiating. The family will receive friends immediately following the service. Interment will be at Oak City Cemetery. Online visitors may sign the guest register at
www.iveyfuneral.com. Bonnie Prestine was born December 20, 1935 in Bainbridge, Georgia the daughter of George Preston Copeland and Bonceil Harrell Copeland. She graduated from West Bainbridge High School with the Class of 1952. Prestine worked at Robins Air Force Base in GA, Tyndall Air Force Base in FL, the Naval Air Development Center in PA, the Marine Corps Logistic Base in GA, and the Office of the Community Commander in Frankfurt, Germany as a Secretary with over 30 years of service. She was a member of the Civil Air Patrol and flew on several missions. Prestine was a membership chairman for Today’s Professional Secretaries, Secretary for Flint River Power Squadron Auxiliary, member of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, and a member of the Albany Symphony. She practiced the Catholic faith and attended Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church. She was a talented pianist. Prestine was kind and giving but her greatest joy was being a wife and mother. She loved her grandpuppies with all her heart. Survivors include her daughter, Sonia Sowa; siblings, Mary Copeland Ramsey, George Earl Copeland, and Deborah Copeland Faulkner (Rex); best friends, Peggy Turknett Armintrout and Angela Lane Brown; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Prestine was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Henry Joseph Sowa; siblings, Alwayne Copeland Finleyson and Victor Harrell Copeland; brothers-in-law, Cecil H. Ramsey, Jr. and Billy Finleyson. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or the Bainbridge-Decatur County Humane Society, 1250 Cox Avenue, Bainbridge GA 39819. The Sowa family has entrusted the arrangements to Ivey Funeral Home, 502 S. Scott Street, Bainbridge, GA 39819.