Bonnie Whitney was born in Duluth, Minnesota (on the tip of Lake Superior), but when she was nine years old the family moved to a house on twenty acres outside of Duluth, complete with woods, wild strawberry fields, and a trout stream. Her memories of the COLD include waiting for the school bus in 20 below zero weather while tiny icicles formed on her eyelashes from condensation. Warm, fuzzy memories are of summer vacations spent in a cabin on one of the more than 10,000 lakes in the state where she especially enjoyed fishing with her dad.

After graduation from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Kindergarten/Primary and Elementary Education, she married Bob Whitney of Superior, Wisconsin. They moved to St. Paul where Bonnie taught 1st grade for four years. When their first child, Amy, was 11 months old, Bob was transferred to hot and sunny South Africa where they lived for the next seven years and where their two sons, Barry and Colin, were born. The family's favorite vacation was going to Kruger National Park, a game reserve the size of Switzerland where many nature films are photographed. At night they'd awaken to the clamor of warthogs or baboons knocking over garbage cans, or to the roar of lions hunting!

Back in the States, they settled in Pennsylvania where Bonnie taught at a Christian School in Washington, worked in the Penn State Libray in State College, and later in a public library in Pittsburgh. In 2000 Bob and Bonnie moved to North Carolina to be closer to Bonnie's sister who lives in Valdese, NC. Besides working in the office at CGS, she spends her time compiling her Creative Memories photograph albums, feeding the birds on the patio (ask her about bluebirds), working on various needlework projects, or gardening.