Sonia Elaine (Tomlinson/Wade) Buss

ARLINGTON-Sonia Elaine (Tomlinson/Wade) Buss passed Thursday, June 27, 2019 at the age of 85.

Celebration of life: 10 a.m. Monday, July 1, 2019 at Brown Owens & Brumley’s Joe B. Brown Memorial Chapel. Visitation: 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.

Interment: Sonia Elaine will be laid to rest in George’s Creek Cemetery Monday, 2 PM.

Memorials: A fitting memorial would be a donation to Doctors Without Borders. donate.doctorswithoutborders.org

Sonia Elaine was born Thursday, November 30, 1933 to Vavel R. and Verna Lee Howeth Tomlinson in Abby Bend, Texas near Glen Rose. While Vavel’s oil field work took the family to differing areas of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma, most of Sonia’s elementary and high school years were spent in Graham, Texas. She graduated from Amon Carter High School in Fort Worth in 1951 with the highest average in the senior class.

She married Kenneth R. Wade in 1955. Ten years later in November 1965, she lost her much loved father to an auto accident. Eleven months afterward, Sonia was widowed when Kenneth died in an auto accident as well. In August 1968 she married Eugene Buss and in 1969 they moved to Independence, Missouri, where their son, Vincent, was born. She was the anchor of the small and very close family of three for the next 50 years. Eugene and Sonia’s marriage was enviable as their love, respect and consideration for each other was always apparent.

Apart from being a mother and wife, her most memorable job was as medical staff secretary at the Independence Hospital from 1970 – 1976. From early 1977 to retirement she worked at various HUD civil service positions in Dallas and Fort Worth. She excelled in her work, consistently receiving outstanding performance awards for the next eighteen years until she retired in 1995.

Know as Elaine to her family and Sonia to most others, she was that special, favorite aunt who always had a gift for a niece or nephew on visits. She was regarded as a matriarch of sorts by both her and her husband’s families. Her oftentimes soft singing of childhood folk songs throughout the day was a reflection of her gentle soul and happiness that everyone who met her felt. She had many special friends including co-workers, particularly Linnie with whom she shared a common birthday and with whom she and their spouses shared over 50 years of special birthday dining outings. She was outgoing and generous. Throughout her life she sponsored and corresponded with children in need, donated to the World Wildlife Fund as well as Doctor’s Without Borders.

Survivors: Husband, Eugene Buss; son, Vincent Buss; and many friends.