Editor’s Note: This story is part of a monthly series we’ve dubbed “Neighbor Spotlight,” where we write a feature about a person in our coverage area. Submit candidates through Open Source.
ASHLAND — Bonnie Zimmerman has stuck with the same part-time job selling women’s cosmetics for more than 50 years. Half a century later, and at “86 years-young,” she keeps at it — along with everything else she enthusiastically throws herself into.
In July 1971, Zimmerman answered her front door at her Ashland home. She described the person knocking at the door as a “young lady” she had taught in Sunday school.
“She was more or less thinking I had a teen daughter and that maybe she’d be interested in selling Avon,” Zimmerman remembers. “Well, my daughter wasn’t, but she was so enthusiastic about it that I really felt it was a direction I would go instead.”
Zimmerman expressed her interest and within days she had her own territory — from Center to East Main streets — selling Avon, a multi-level marketing company that sells cosmetics and skin care products.
She has since moved out of the city and built up a clientele that includes people from Ashland University, Ashland City Schools, the Ashland Pregnancy Center, the Ashland Training Center Preschool and several other area businesses and individuals.
Zimmerman said she gave up her full-time gig with Gilbert Furniture Co. after giving birth to their first child. With time, she said she began to pray for a part-time job. So with the ability to work at her own pace, Avon wasn’t just a right fit — it was an answer to prayers. But her goal was never to become Avon’s best seller.
Nevertheless, she does pretty well.
Avon automatically places its sales representatives in the President’s Club — a level reserved for salespeople who earn at least $10,000 a year in commission — when that person reaches 50 years of service.
Zimmerman met that criteria earlier this year, but she had already been part of the club before. Over the years, she has earned company gifts for loyalty and solid commissions, such as a trip to Avon executive offices in New York City, a shipping clearing house in Zanesville and several gifts.
She has built a reputation in the area as being a non-pushy salesperson.
“I don’t use a guilt trip or anything,” she said. “I want to treat them like I’m treated. I appreciate people letting me know about their product but I don’t want to be backed into a corner.”
Her mantra is based on a simple phrase: “They buy if, when and what they want. They determine.”
But her reputation runs deeper than a simple sales motto — whether she knows it or not.
It’s her deep affection for children and teaching them Bible passages and stories the community will likely remember of her.
“The kids absolutely love her,” said Tracy Hood, a preschool teacher at Ashland Training Center Preschool.
Hood said Zimmerman has been running a Bible club with preschool and school-aged children for 40 years. Once a week, she comes to the center to teach kids songs and read Bible stories.
“She also attends preschool graduation every year,” Hood said, adding her students perform a song they’ve learned from the weekly “Pastor Bonnie Day.”
“That’s what the kids ask us all the time — is it Pastor Bonnie Day?” Hood said.
Her love of teaching children about God stems from her deep faith that has grown over decades spent at New Life Community Church.
Bonnie and James Zimmerman got married there in 1954 when she was 19. But she had already been a member at the church for a few years.
Today, she remains as one of the longest-living members of New Life at 71 years. Members there say the number of people she’s influenced over those years is innumerable.
Julie Randolph, the church’s office manager, said Zimmerman was the first person she interacted with 25 years ago over the phone when she and her husband were searching for a new church after moving to the area from Nova.
At the time, Zimmerman worked for the church in its children’s ministry.
“She happened to be my daughter’s teacher that first day we went,” Randolph said. “She’s very memorable. She makes a mark on families here — whether they’re here for a month or longer or only a couple times.”
Dave McNeely, who has served as the church’s pastor for the last five years, said her imprint is so indelible that he has pastor friends all over Ohio who attribute her to a big part of why they chose to be pastors.
“She’s the ever-ready bunny,” he said. And she’s been there for nearly as long as the church has existed, which is 75 years.
Zimmerman, who now lives as a widow with her 66-year-old son, has a thing or two to say about life, death and old age.
Her parents have passed on, and so have her brother and her sister. She and her husband, Jim, had three children — one of them has died.
“My son lives with me. My daughter lives in Mansfield. They’re wonderful to me. So we’re a good, small, loving family. There’s a love and respect and support for one another,” she said.
Her husband of 64 years passed away three years ago at age 92.
“He was well-loved,” she said. “But he’s with the Lord and that’s the comfort we have there.
“When people ask me, ‘how are you?’ I tell them, ‘I’m too blessed to be stressed.’ “
She said a friend gave her a pillow with that phrase emblazoned into it. She keeps it in a conspicuous spot in her house. She said it “gets me thinking” and often inspires her to keep blessing other people — whether it be through church, Avon or Ashland Training Center.
“I know people see me as the ‘sweet, old lady,’” she said. “But that’s not right. In less than a month, I’ll be 86 years-young — not old. Old is a frame of mind. Not an age.”
Her mother lived to be 101 years … young.
“So the way I look at it, I’ve got 14 more years until I reach 100,” she said. “And then how many years beyond that, well that’s up to the Lord.”
