Bonnie Jane Ter Keurst

Bonnie Jane Ter Keurst was born September 17, 1949 to Merle and Elaine Riphagen in Orange City, Iowa. The new family moved to California when she was only six months old where she grew up amidst the dairy farms of Artesia.

It was Bonnie’s mom who first taught her piano at about the age of seven, beginning what would be a life-long passion. Her career as a singer also began young with church choirs and an appearance at age 10 as part of a choir on the Children’s Hour, a weekly religious television program for kids. Sometime in those early years she also played accordion and started organ. Piano, organ and singing stuck. Accordion, not so much.

Bonnie’s life had three threads that ran throughout: Church, family, and music. Those three things knit together everything she did and wove in and out of each other in ways that cannot be untangled.

Bonnie and her family, including her two younger brothers and many aunts, uncles, and cousins, all attended Bethel Reformed Church. And it was there that she met Jeff in high school youth group. They dated about 2 years, with a short separation early in the relationship when Jeff’s family moved to Michigan, before getting engaged on December 9, 1967. They were married October 3, 1969. The notable delay was due to Jeff’s service in the US Army.

The family started to grow when Jody was born in 1970. Brad came along in 1972. During this time Jeff was working and going to school. In addition to being a mom, Bonnie was working several part time jobs, pianist/organist and choir director at a local church, bookkeeper for two small businesses, playing piano for a local high school choir, and giving piano lessons.

In 1980 Bonnie and Jeff moved to Redlands. There they bought the house she would make a home for the remainder of her time on earth and began attending Bethany Reformed Church. Interesting note, attendance at Bethany began because, while driving through town, Bonnie saw Roger Beukleman’s name on the sign as the Assistant Pastor. A name she recognized because Roger’s mom, Mrs. Beukleman, had been her Sunday School teacher as a young girl.

The next years were full. With two kids, there were church activities, school assemblies, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball and water polo games, dance recitals, swim meets, badminton matches, choir concerts, school plays, and speech tournaments. Bonnie finished her Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of California at Riverside in 1982. While she no longer worked for a church, she played piano for the Riverside Master Chorale and continued playing piano and organ at churches when needed, directing adult and youth choirs, putting together musicals, Christmas and Easter programs and later moving from piano to keyboard and teaching herself guitar and bass so she could be part of (and sometimes lead) praise teams and worship times as the church transitioned from the organ and hymns to praise and worship choruses.

During this time, she also held jobs at Broadway department store, Redlands Federal Savings and Loan and finished her “work” career with San Bernardino County, retiring in 2010.

Throughout it all church community was ever-present. There was the small group of couples that met every other Sunday evening to study, fellowship. And there were vacations…. Lake Havasu, Doheny State Beach, Oak Glen apple picking, houseboating, camping, trips to Hawaii and Florida, and a couple cruises for good measure.

Bonnie took great joy in watching her family grow with the addition of a son-in-law and daughter-in-law and then the grandchildren. Beginning in 1998 there was a whole new round of sports events, dance recitals, school assemblies, and band concerts to attend. And she was there for it all. Recreation, club, high school, or college sports – she was there. Kindergarten, middle school, high school, college, graduate school graduations or induction and white coat ceremonies, she was there. When the great-grandkids arrived, she was there for that too.

Many people worry about how they will fill their time in retirement. Not Bonnie. In addition to keeping up with the grandkids and continued involvement with music and home groups at church, she added women’s ministries. She and Jeff continued to travel, sometimes for grandkid events and often just “to explore.” Trips to their second house at Lake Havasu were more frequent and longer. She also continued singing, assistant directing and competing with Sweet Adelines Inland Empire Chorus, something she had started back in the 1990’s. And she branched out, starting violin lessons, taking tap classes, learning pickleball, and volunteering as a pianist for a junior high school choir. And another thing she loved, games. Especially card games. Her last card game was Skip-Bo. She won.

We all lost a little something on January 4, 2026 when Bonnie went home to the Lord. When she was greeted at Heaven’s gates, indeed she won. Bonnie is survived by her husband Jeff. She also leaves their daughter Jody and son-in-law Steve and their four children Rachael, Joshua, Rebecca and Jeffery as well as Joshua’s wife Jalyn and their children Ada and Josiah. Bonnie is also survived by a son Brad, daughter-in-law Vickie and their sons Jacob and Tyler. Bonnie also leaves her two younger brothers Gary and Gregg.