Augusta McPadden

GROTON - Augusta “Bonnie” McPadden, CRNA, 96, of Wyndham Falls Estates, formerly of Norwich, passed away peacefully on March 27, 2013 at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital. She was born on March 2, 1917 in Oakland, CA, the only child of Fred (USN) and Mabel (Kennedy) Nettleblade. She graduated from Vallejo High School at 16, and attended UCLA Berkeley, until age 18, when she was old enough to attend and graduate from St Francis nursing school in San Francisco. Determined to advance her nursing career, she travelled alone to the University of Michigan in 1940, to study anesthesia.

Bonnie served as an Army nurse during WWII, when she met her husband Atty. Vincent P. McPadden in Michigan. They married on Jan. 29, 1945, and moved to Bridgeport. Vincent died of cancer in 1972. Bonnie retired at the age of 70 from Backus Hospital, having worked there for 30 years. She proudly served as their Chief Nurse Anesthetist, beginning in 1960. While working, Bonnie was active in the Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Zonta, and the Parliamentarians, serving as an officer in each. Bonnie was an energetic and independent woman ahead of her time: sewing her own clothes at age 8, driving at 12, working full time as a nurse anesthetist in the 1950s, being aware of and proactive in nutrition and physical conditioning, playing racquetball into her sixties and swimming and lifting weights into her 70’s, and buying the latest gadgets and having a Facebook page at 92.

After retirement, Bonnie volunteered at AARP, Backus Hospital, UCS, her church, and various other social and veteran’s groups. Her favorite activities were sewing, knitting, reading, watching TV news shows, swimming, ballroom dancing, traveling, eating ice cream, and going to the movies with her daughter Colleen.

Bonnie’s local family are oldest daughter, Colleen M. Durga, granddaughters, Kathleen Kuvalanka and Kelly Way, and great-grandchildren Nicholas and Kaitlyn Kuvalanka. Additional family members are daughter, Mabel Anne Marston of LA, son, Russell P. McPadden and his wife Juliann of Corpus Christi, Texas, four additional grandchildren Elizabeth Ames, Karen Albanese, Raymond McPadden, and Daniel McPadden, six great-grandchildren, and two great great-grandchildren living throughout the US.

Bonnie faithfully loved and supported her family. We are grateful to have had her in our lives for so long and will truly miss her.

Bonnie’s family wishes to thank the nurses at L & M, the staff and her friends at Wyndham Falls Estates, and her church community for their loving care and support. Funeral services will be held at St. James Episcopal Church in Preston, at 2:00 PM on Thursday, April 11, 2013. Interment will follow immediately at Maplewood Cemetery in Norwich. In Bonnie’s honor, an ice cream social will be held after the burial at the Church at approximately 4:30PM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bonnie’s name to St James Episcopal Church in Preston.

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