Bonnie Miles

Bonnie Charlene Miles, 91, beloved “Mimi” to her family, and countless fans in Jal, NM, and across West Texas, went home to be with Jesus on February 2, 2023 after a short stay in Yoakum County Hospital and a week in the nursing home in Denver City, TX.

Bonnie was born July 17, 1931 in Glasscock County near Garden City, TX.  She was delivered by a family friend to Thomas A. and Willie Kate Rankin.  When the doctor arrived the next morning to check on mother and child, he was paid with two chickens and a bucket of sorghum molasses syrup made by her father, Tom.  The family moved to Loraine, TX where she grew up and met the love of her life, James Miles.

James Earnest Miles and Bonnie were married on November 18, 1949 at First Baptist Church in Loraine, TX.  They enjoyed a brief honeymoon in San Antonio, TX, returning to begin their new lives in Colorado City, TX for the next five years.  In 1956, James was hired by El Paso Natural Gas in Jal, NM, so the family moved to Jal and started their family.  They remained there for the rest of their lives.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband, James, four brothers, two sisters, and one son-in-law, Steve Smith.  One sister, Ruth Allison (96), resides in San Diego, California.  She is also survived by her four children: Janet Andis and her husband, Jack; Patsy Hammons and her husband, Larry; Vicki Smith; Michael Miles and his wife, Katie.  Bonnie’s joy increased with fourteen grandchildren, twenty-one great grandchildren, and five great, great grandchildren.

Bonnie was an avid fisherman, loved to hunt arrowheads, and caused quite a stir when she found an actual Indian skeleton and was interviewed on TV and radio.  Soon after, she was visited by an archaeologist from the University of New Mexico.  She also enjoyed hunting deer, dove, and quail.  Nothing gave her more joy than watching her grandchildren participate in and win championships in football, baseball, and basketball.

Bonnie’s career was exemplified in a simple gift she received from her two grandsons.  The gift was a small plaque that read, “There’s no place like home, except Mimi’s”.  She and James spent so much of their final years keeping grandkids while their parents worked.