Margaret Bonomo was born Margaret Miller in Findlay, Ohio in December 6, 1912. She enrolled in the Henry Ford Hospital School of Nursing and Hygiene in Detroit, Michigan in September of 1932. After completing a three year nursing diploma course and a brief stint in the local hospital, Bonomo trained as a public health nurse in Detroit and worked from 1936-1938 for the Detroit Public Health Department. Bonomo continued to take evening classes to further her public health nursing knowledge. She then applied and was accepted by the New Mexico Director of Public Health in 1938 to work in Harding County, New Mexico. Bonomo trained in the San Miguel County Health Department at Las Vegas, New Mexico from January through August of 1938. She then transferred to Mosquero, New Mexico in Harding County where she lived and worked until 1941.
Bonomo traveled around the county holding well child clinics, giving immunizations, and educational talks on hygiene. Medical facilities in rural New Mexico remained rudimentary and in many places non-existent. The services of a public health nurse were a welcome addition to traditional methods of healing. Sometimes a physician accompanied her but often she attended the sick alone.
Bonomo left Mosquero in 1941 to attend Wayne University. On a trip to the World's Fair in San Francisco she met her future husband John Bonomo who proposed the night before she went back east to complete her education. Bonomo received her Certificate of Public Health Nursing and married shortly afterwards. The Bonomos moved back to Roy, New Mexico but the war interrupted family life. John entered the army and Margaret returned east to live with her family for the duration of the war. After the war the Bonomos moved frequently finally settling in Springer, New Mexico for eight years where John worked for the Soil Conservation Service. The Bonomos returned to Mosquero in 1954, now married with 4 children. Margaret resumed her nursing career in the Public Health Department. In 1955 she and her family moved to Lovington, New Mexico and Bonomo worked as a school nurse until her husband was transferred to Grants, New Mexico in 1964. Margaret continued her work for the Public Health Department in Grants and her husband worked for the Soil Conservation Service. She and her husband lived in Grants for 29 years.
From the guide to the Margaret Bonomo Memoirs, [198-], (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)
