Patricia Ermis Bonham

Patricia "Patti" Ermis Bonham was a wife, mother and longtime Middle Tennessee bank employee who spent most of her adult life in Franklin, Tennessee. She was not a public figure in the conventional sense, and no Wikipedia page or film, book or political record exists for her. She is remembered here because her life and death were documented in a published obituary and because her family and community wanted her story told plainly and honestly, as this site aims to do for every life worth remembering.

She was born on June 24, 1965, in Fairfield, California, though her mother's family soon moved back to Summerton, South Carolina, and it was South Carolina that Patti always considered home. She grew up playing basketball and cheerleading and later attended the University of South Carolina, where she met her future husband, Jeff. The two married in April 1989 and went on to raise three children together, moving as a family through Augusta, Georgia; Morton, Illinois; and Farragut, Tennessee, before settling permanently in Franklin, Tennessee.

Professionally, Patricia worked for years as a bank teller at Regions Bank. She stepped away from that job to raise her children and returned to Regions in 2011. Wanting to build on that work, she went back to school in her mid forties and completed an Associate's Degree in Accounting at Nashville State Community College, graduating in 2020. She then became the bookkeeper at Harpeth Christian Church in Franklin, where she was also an active member, a role she held until her death.

Patricia Ermis Bonham died at her home on September 4, 2026, at the age of 61, after what her family described as a year long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. She passed away peacefully and was surrounded by her family at the time of her death. Her passing was announced through an obituary published by Williamson Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services in the Franklin and Spring Hill, Tennessee area.

She was survived by Jeff, her husband of 37 years, her daughters Morgan, who is married to Mac Gibbons, and Emma, and her sisters Jeannie and Cyndi Ermis, along with extended family, cousins and friends. She was preceded in death by her son, Christopher Teague Bonham, and by her parents, Vernon and Kate (Kitty) Ermis. Those who knew her described a woman defined by her devotion to her family, her church and the small, steady work of balancing books and raising a household, rather than by public recognition.