Lenida Bond Obituary

After sailing life's seas with style, sass, and surrounded by bold colors, the Salty Lady has gone to dry dock. Lenida C. Bond, 90, died on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, insisting to the very last moment that she was not yet done with life. We hear that. She was born November 3, 1932, in Fort Worth TX, which was not her home but just a roadside stop on the way to somewhere else. She died in Boerne TX, which was also not her home, but she at least had a house there. It was her beloved ranch in Sabinal TX that she called her forever home. Initially, she said the ranch evoked memories of her childhood Arkansas home, but later it became her forever heart-home. Lenida had two daughters with her first husband. After him, she gave up on the idea of offspring but not on husbands. She experimented with that a few more times until she met and married L. M. "Lennie" Bond, her true partner in crime. And while she was always a hard partier, marrying Lennie was when her life really took an adventurous turn. Together, Lenida and Lennie traveled the country, parts of the world, and the seas. They fished hard, hunted hard, and sometimes partied hard. The daughters recall fondly that Lennie and Lenida often looked at each other and said, "We've had a helluva good time, haven't we, Babe?"They owned two boats over the years - the Salty Lady, affectionately named after Lenida, and La Dulce Vida (The Sweet Life), most assuredly not named after her - and made liberal use of them for offshore fishing excursions. They exhibited generally insanely fun behavior, such as visiting Mount St. Helens not too long after the horrific eruption in 1980, canoeing in lakes and bayous in the middle of the night, hoping to snare frogs and not alligators (successfully, we assume, since neither of them died by alligator), and traveling TO Houston in September 2005 to secure their house against Hurricane Rita. You'll remember Rita came right on the heels of Hurricane Katrina. The best the daughters could do was remind them to take an axe to the attic. But her favorite adventure memories were of their safari in Tanzania. Both of them being hunters, this was NOT just a photography experience, but a full on African guided hunt on the planes. While these were her best memories, Lennie's penchant for taxidermies trophies became her worst nightmare. Their tiny living room at the ranch sported a water buffalo skull among the several other "mammal-robilia". Those took center stage in the home until the day after Lennie passed in 2014. After Lennie's death, Lenida dedicated her time to living her life exactly as she wanted to. She traveled as much as she could, fully remodeled her ranch home, took up and abandoned hobbies on a routine basis, surrounded herself with brilliantly colored (a euphemism for different, according to her daughters) decor, played mean games of 42 and Rummicube right up to the end, and involved herself deeply in her church communities in Concan and Boerne TX. After a prolonged illness in 2019, Lenida's body slowed down quite a bit. That she didn't always remember this led to some extreme misunderstandings between Lenida's mind and body, and the daughters have the photos to prove it. She never remembered her various "spills" anyway, which we suppose is almost the same as them never having happened. For Lenida, that is. The daughters still have remember them. After badgering her to move closer to medical services (and to the daughters, although that wasn't a valid reason to her), Lenida purchased a house in Boerne. In full retaliation, though, she would never admit to loving it (even though she did) or to appreciating the convenience of not needing a full day to run to the grocery store and the doctor. And now, this beautiful, eccentric, colorful woman is survived by the multitudes who loved her (and who have the scars and laugh lines to prove it): Daughters Phyllis Teague of Albuquerque NM and Rebecca Trussell-Williams and her husband Russell Williams of Boerne TX; stepdaughter Cheryl Maxwell and her husband Alan of New Waverly, TX; granddaughters Shawn Parker, Shiloah Wyatt, Robin Young, and Emily Trussell; 8 great-grandchildren; 3 great-great-grandchildren; Lennie's grandchildren and great-grandchildren; sisters Pam Boerner, Bonnie Hennig, and Esperanza Buenteo; sister-in-law Janie Crawford; stepmother Hazel Wheeler; adopted "granddaughter"/chauffer/superhero caregiver Christy Lee and her husband Carlus; numerous extended family members and friends, and her beloved cats Puddin' and Shugah. She was preceded in death by her husband L. M "Lennie" Bond, brother David Crawford, sister Coni Ross, and stepdaughter Lanelle Stoughton, as well as her parents, Lois Lurline Gill and David D. Crawford. We love you, Mom, and we miss you already, and so much. Thank you for your strength, artistry, the wonderful life lessons, and all the laughter. In accordance with her wishes, Lenida will be cremated. The family will scatter her and Lennie's ashes at a later date on their beloved ranch in Sabinal. Join us in a celebration of Lenida's life on Friday, April 28, at Ebensberger Fisher Funeral Home in Boerne. Visitation begins at 3 PM, with the service at 4 PM (also livestreamed here) and a catered reception 5 to 7 PM. Bring your best, most colorful stories. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Uvalde Hospice, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, or the Uvalde Together We Rise Fund.