Yolonda Fuller

Yolonda was born in 1930 in Chicago, IL. But a year later her parents returned to Kansas City, where Yolonda (who everyone knew as “Yonnie”) spent the rest of her 94 years. She grew up on Winthrop Road and went to J. C. Nichols school and Southwest High School, where she developed many, many lifelong friends. She also attended KCU, now UMKC, for 2 years until she met and married the love of her life. Yonnie worked as a teenager at the Dime Store in Brookside. In 1950 she married Richard M. (Dick) Fuller, at Country Club Christian Church, where Dick and Yonnie met. (Dad spotted Mom from his spot in the choir loft and asked one of his friends, ”Who is that pretty gal?”) They were married 74 years ago last month.

She worked for Folgers Coffee in the 1950's. After living three years in a cute little apartment on the West side of the Country Club Plaza, they builttheir home in Prairie Village, where Roe and a section line road intersected in a farm field, the section line being 79th Street, lined with old walnut trees. Their home, a contemporary built by a California Builder, Don Drummond, is where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Yonnie was a life long member of the Kansas City Young Matrons, was an accomplished seamtress who made all her clothes, her daughter Karen's clothes and then her grand children's clothes. She taught Karen how to sew, and later her grandson Zac and granddaughter Emily.

Yonnie was involved with Band Boosters and PTA when Karen was in high school. She worked for the county each election day. She played bridge in two bridge groups. Yonnie worked for Harpers Fabrics for nearly two decades. She and Dick played tennis, loved to travel with their kids to Table Rock lake in the summers, and to ski at Winter Park Colorado in the winters, and hiking in the summers. Dick and Yonnie traveled to the Bahamas and Acapulco, and went to the first Super Bowl.

In 1980, they started spending time each Fall on Sanibel Island, Florida, and eventually spent the winters in Fort Myers for the next decade. Mom took up golf after retiring and enjoyed and enjoyed it and the friends she made golfing for many years. After Dick passed away in 2013, Yonnie continued to winter in Florida and was on one of the last flights home from Fort Myers when the pandemic hit in March 2020.

Yonnie spent her life giving to others. She will be missed terribly.

She is survived by her daughter Karen Chapman, son Rick, and son-in-law Joel Chapman, granddaughter Emily Ramagnano and her husband Joseph, grandson Zac Bennett, and four great grandchildren.