Kay Bonnoitt, 82, made career in real estate
June 26, 2025
Marian Kay McCormac Bonnoitt of Greenville, a former Georgetown resident, died June 14. She was 82.
Known as Kay, she was born March 23, 1943, in Kingstree, the daughter of John Kay McCormac and Marian Dubose Rowell McCormac. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Georgetown, where she lived the majority of her life. Kay graduated from Winyah High in 1962 and went to Atlanta to attend Massey Business College. She next moved to Charleston, where she worked as a computer programmer for Public Savings Life Insurance Co. and the State Ports Authority.
It was at this time that she became engaged to a young naval officer whom she had earlier met at the Pawleys Island Pavilion, H.E. “Tez” Bonnoitt Jr. Upon his release from military duty, they eloped at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church on Dec. 13, 1969.
The couple spent the next three years in Columbia, where Mrs. Bonnoitt worked as a computer programmer at The State newspaper and the S.C. Department of Mental Health, while her husband attended law school at the University of South Carolina.
They returned to Georgetown where they lived for the next 50 years. Mrs. Bonnoitt briefly worked at Georgetown Steel before stopping to spend full time caring for her two sons. Once they began school, she began a career in real estate sales which lasted until she retired on Jan. 1, 2007.
Upon retirement she took up various hobbies until she discovered her love for oil painting, to which she devoted most of her time before becoming disabled. She and her husband moved to Greenville in 2023.
Mrs. Bonnoitt was a member of Duncan Memorial since the late 1950s and held a number of positions on church committees as well as on various civic and social organizations in Georgetown.
In addition to her husband of 55 years, she is survived by her sons H. E. “Beau” Bonnoitt III (Lucy) and John McCormac Bonnoitt (Roselle); her grandsons, Patrick Jeffery Bonnoitt and Benjamin McCormac Bonnoitt; her step-grandsons, Parker Stanley Jenkins and Charles David Jenkins; her sister-in-law, Margaret A. Bonnoitt; her brother-in-law John Earnest Bonnoitt (Judi); her nephew, John Earnest Bonnoitt Jr.; as well as a nephew, Clay Siau, and niece, Shannon Siau.
Another son, Albert, died in childbirth. Her sister, Etta Siau, also died before her.
A memorial service will be held July 3 at 2 p.m. at Duncan Memorial Methodist Church. The family will receive friends afterward in the Family Life Center.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials be made to Alzheimer’s disease research at www.alz.org or the church at duncanmemorialchurch.com.
