Marie B. Tonnar; Former Secretary to Senator

Ventura resident Marie B. Tonnar has died after a brief illness while traveling in Arizona. She was 84.

Tonnar, who died Sunday, was born Oct. 15, 1914, in Denison, Iowa, to August and Katherine Bachman. She graduated from Denison High School in 1932.

For several years, Tonnar worked as a secretary in county government in Iowa. In 1938, she enrolled in a Washington, D.C.-based secretarial school before joining the office staff of then-U.S. Sen. Clyde Herring of Iowa.

She became the senator’s executive secretary until his term ended in 1942.

On March 21, 1943, she married Maj. Wiley B. Tonnar of Santa Barbara, who was then stationed at the Pentagon and traveled with him to assignments in the U.S.

In 1954, Tonnar and her family moved to Germany for her husband’s remaining two years in the military. At that time, he was a colonel.

Tonnar and her husband retired in 1971 to Oak View and then later moved to Ventura. Tonnar was preceded in death by her husband, two brothers and a sister.

Tonnar is survived by her son, Wiley Paul Tonnar of Ventura; a daughter, Linda Ann Tonnar, also of Ventura; two stepdaughters, Alicia Powers of Santa Barbara and Marsha Stephens of Santa Maria; two sisters, Clara Bachman of Denison and Lillian Bachman of El Paso, Texas; a brother, Elmer Bachman of El Paso; and two grandsons.

A service will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home in Ventura with the Rev. Jim Wells officiating. Burial will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.