Peggy Sue Dennis Bonifay, 90, a resident of Pensacola, FL, died Sunday morning, December 18, 2022, following a brief illness. Peg died peacefully at Summer Vista Assisted Living Community where she resided since 2020. She was surrounded by neighbors and friends from both Summer Vista and her old neighborhood in East Hill. She was lovingly cared for by the Summer Vista staff and by Regency (Gentiva) Hospice.

Peg was born July 8, 1932, in Bogolusa, LA. As an accomplished high school basketball player in the early 1950s, she was offered a sports scholarship to play at the college level but declined and entered the post-war workforce. She moved, with her mother, Daisy Dennis, to Pensacola where she worked at a local car sales company and then for an oil products distributor. Later, she married Ralph Lamont Bonifay a 9 ^th Avenue neighbor and co-worker at Greeenhut Construction. She and Mr. Bonifay were avid Notre Dame Sports fans, travelling numerous times to South Bend for games with fellow fans from the Pensacola Notre Dame Club.

Ralph was a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, and Peggy regularly attended services with him. Though Peggy was raised Methodist, she and her sister, Pearl Coker, were active in the Cathedral's Sanctuary Society. Peggy and Pearl provided countless hours of decorating, cleaning and material support for myriad celebrations and rites that occur throughout each year. In 1980, Peg received a "Certificate" from the Association of Builders of the "New Sacred Heart Church" for her contributions to that effort. In 1988, Peg received a "Proclamation" from the Bishop, acclaiming her an "Honorary Member" of the Cathedral Sanctuary Society.

Mr. & Mrs. Bonifay were originally residents of Gulf Breeze. Beginning in 2000 they split their time between their home on Cordoba Drive and the East Hill home of Peggy's oldest sibling, Pearl Coker. The Bonifay's had already served for many years as the favorite aunt and uncle to Pearl's daughter, Cathy. Their move provided necessary additional care for her aging sister and their niece. Cathy died in 2001 and Pearl died in 2006. The Bonifays moved permanently into their East Hill home on Molaree Drive in 2006.

Peg is preceded in death by her husband, Ralph; her sisters, Pearl Coker and Merle Gerdau; as well as her brother, Stanley Dennis.

She is survived by her nephews, Chuck Gerdau of Tuscaloosa, and Greg Gerdau of Chapel Hill.

Visitation will be held 2:00pm until a Funeral Service to begin at 2:30pm Wednesday, December 21, 2022, at Harper-Morris Memorial Chapel. Private interment will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery, be next to her husband, Ralph.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the ARC Gateway in memory of Peg and Ralph Bonifay.