Emma Alice (Bonine) Murray was born June 4, 1923 near Beresford, SD to parents Theodore and Alice (Glidden) Bonine. She died February 8, 2011 at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD at the age of 87 years, 8 months and 4 days.

Emma attended Pioneer Grade School. After graduating from eighth grade, Emma moved to Perry, Iowa to make her home with her sister and brother-in-law, Ethel and Elmer Roberts, helping with the vegetable garden. She attended Perry High School, working in a private home doing ironing and household chores to raise money for her school books.

In 1940 she moved back to South Dakota and went to work in Sioux Falls, taking care of twin baby boys. In 1941 she moved to San Francisco to help her sister, Marian Kirstine. While there she got a job at Union Pacific Railroad Hospital as a nurses aide. In 1944 Emma moved to Los Angeles to once again help her sister, Marian. In 1945 she returned to Beresford to visit and help care for her father during his final illness.

On May 27, 1946, Emma married Thomas Murray in St. Teresa Catholic Church in Beresford. They farmed north of Beresford for two years and then northwest of Canton, South Dakota. In 1951 they moved to Perry, Iowa. In 1955 Emma and Tom moved back to a farm in Lincoln County, South Dakota, ten miles north of Beresford and raised their family. While living there Emma was a 4-H leader for eleven years, worked part-time at the photography studio in Beresford, worked as a waitress in the local cafes, helped Tom farm and started a business doing silk flower arranging called Aunt Ems Corner.

In April, 1986 Emma and Tom moved to upstate New York. While there Emma worked part-time in an orchard, a wholesale silk and dried flower shop and the bakery department at Tops Super Market.

While living in Geneva, Emma and Tom took up square dancing and danced in several towns in upstate New York. They met and made friends with several New York couples.

In August 1994, Emma and Tom moved back to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Preceding her in death were her parents, four brothers and their spouses, Walter and Edna Bonine, Claude and Emily Bonine, Everett and Nora Bonine and William and Robbie Bonine, six sisters and their spouses, Gladys and Julian Anderson, Ethel and Elmer Roberts, Hazel and Carl Nelson, Marian and Lawrence Kirstine, Violet and Everett Stewart and Grace and Ranald Milton and several nieces and nephews.

Survivors include her beloved husband of 64 years, Tom, two daughters, Coleen (Eric) Sonntag, Geneva, New York and Terese Murray, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, four grandsons, Daniel (Melissa) Sonntag, Buffalo, New York, Thomas Sonntag, Tequesta, Florida, Jeffrey Sonntag and James Sonntag, Geneva, New York and one great granddaughter, Kaitlyn Sonntag, Buffalo, New York and many nieces and nephews.

A funeral mass will be held 10:30AM, February 14, 2011 at St. Teresa Catholic Church in Beresford with burial at St. John Catholic Cemetery, rural Beresford. Visitation will be from 6PM to 8PM at the church with a wake service at 7PM.