John Lee Bonner, son of Oliver Young Bonner and Sarah Hope Robinson, was born at Bonnerville, Texas on August 10, 1893. While actually named for his mother's brother, John Lee Robinson, who presented his namesake a calf, he was endowed with names that permeate the family and was known as John L. It was pronounced as one word and sounded like "Jonell." His brothers nicknamed him "Port." Perhaps this nickname arose because John. L. was charged by his father to be the lead in the cotton fields and often competed with Porter, a Black sharecropper. In 1915, he completed course work at Tyler Commercial College. During World War I, he served in the United States Army and was in France and Germany serving in a field hospital unit. Harry Glenn remembered, "Daddy, Corporal Clerk of a field hospital unit was assigned a room in a hotel. An officer came in to take his room. He picked the officer up and was about to throw him off the balcony when the senior officer stopped it. Why there was not a court martial I don't know." Evidently John L. learned to control his temper because it is said that on his deathbed Young asked him to be the peacemaker in the family. John L. first went to work for Teague State Bank in 1919 but in 1920 transferred to First National Bank, Streetman, Texas where he was bookkeeper and cashier. On January 27, 1922, he married Eleanor Belle Bass and they were parents of two sons: Harry Glenn and Bobby Ray. They made their home in Streetman for many years. In 1944, John L. went to Fairfield State Bank and he and Eleanor Belle constructed a large antebellum style home on East Commerce (US 84) in Fairfield. They tore down the old Bass home where Eleanor Belle grew up in Stewards Mill and used those 1 X 12 pine boards to build their new home. To this they added a custom-made mantel and hardwood floors. He was elected vice-president of the bank in 1950 but retired in 1952 to open John L. Bonner Insurance Agency in Fairfield. His son Bobby characterized him: "Daddy was the most honest businessman I ever knew. Maybe that's why he died with nothing, but he died happy." John L. will be remembered as a dark-complexioned man. He was about five feet, eight inches tall and rotund. His usual attire was a nice shirt, dress slacks, and a tie. He was a member of First Baptist Church in Fairfield where he served as deacon. John L. was a member of Fairfield Lodge No. 103, A.F.&A.M. John L. spent the last years of his life in Waco in the home of his son Bobby.