Mrs. Norma Koster Bunnell passed away Sunday, March 8, 2020. She was born in Patterson, New Jersey, on Feb. 10, 1923, to Mildred Schadt Koster and Ernest Koster. George Rice Bunnell, her husband, was born Jan. 14, 1924, and passed away July 23, 1999. Her brother, Richard A. Koster, and her sister-in-law, Barbara G. Bunnell Koster, both predeceased her.
She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Eugenie Elizabeth Hamilton and David, Valerie Ann Bunnell and Hal Marshall, and Amy Louise Bunnell LaCon and Vincent LaCon; grandchildren Jeffrey Hunt Hamilton (married to Kerri Martin Hamilton) and Adam George Hamilton, Sophia Jean Marshall, Christopher George LaCon, Genevieve Frances LaCon, Alexander Vincent LaCon, and Quinn Patrick LaCon.
Mrs. Bunnell studied illustration and graduated from Pratt Art Institute in Brooklyn, NY, in 1943. She worked in commercial art and as a magazine art director in Manhattan for eight years. She married in 1951 and became a devoted mother to three daughters.
She had keen interests in art and pursued watercolor painting. She brought a lively perspective to many visual arts including antique collecting, architecture and gardening. She was a student of Americana and history of the 19th and 20th centuries. She and George enjoyed many historical sites and museums in New York and New England.
In the 1970s she collected and recreated a historically accurate country store with items in use between 1850 and 1860. She was an avid reader, including the New York Times for 60 years. Her enthusiasm for learning was exceptional and contagious.
We are deeply appreciative to the staff of Kroontje Healthcare Center and Good Samaritan Hospice for the wonderful care they gave Mrs. Bunnell since May 2014. In lieu of flowers, the family invites contributions in her memory to Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. To make a gift by phone please call Jess Regis at 718.687.5929. To make a gift online please go to www.pratt.edu/-giving/waystogive.
The family invites friends to visit from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, March 14, 2020 at McCoy Funeral Home 150 Country Club Dr. SW, Blacksburg. A private family interment will follow.
