When she was a 17-year-old college freshman in the late 1930's, Marion “Bonnie” Yates Buchner ’41 declined a job offer to dance with the famed Radio City Music Hall Rockettes in favor of earning her degree.
She graduated from Cortland and devoted 40 years to being a teacher and guidance counselor, but she never stopped dancing. Seventy years later, Buchner is still winning statewide competitions, entertaining young and old alike with her infectious love of dance and tap dancing weekly at the National Dance Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where her life’s story is featured.
A SUNY Cortland Distinguished Alumna, Buchner was raised in Caroga Lake, N.Y. At age 15, she established her own dance school and had 59 students perform in its inaugural recital. She graduated from Fultonville (N.Y.) High School.
At Cortland, she took advantage of every sport opportunity available to female students at the time. She played tennis, basketball and field hockey. She swam and was secretary and treasurer of the Women’s Aquatic Club. She danced under the direction of legendary Cortland instructor Mary Washington Ball, whom she credits as mentor and inspiration. An Alpha Delta sorority sister, Buchner taught dance to youngsters in the community at the Cortland YWCA on Saturday mornings and performed a figure skating exhibition at the newly opened Randall Field rink.
Buchner, who later earned a master’s degree in counseling education from SUNY Oneonta and another master’s degree equivalency in political science and public administration from SUNY Albany, taught in Fort Edward, N.Y., Glens Falls, N.Y., Quincy, Mass., and Wheelerville (N.Y.) Union Free School. She also worked as director of guidance at both Galway (N.Y.) Central School and Fonda-Fultonville (N.Y.) Central School.
She received a presidential invitation to participate in the White House Conference on Children and Youth. She was appointed by the New York State governor to serve on the Conference on Aging and to chair Fulton County Physical Education. A former New York State Fair “Volunteer Woman of the Year,” Buchner ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Assembly. She was a member of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s Speakers Corps and is a past president of the Women’s Republican Club of Fulton County.
She and her husband, Ronald, a former Naval commander, had four children: Bonnie, Bruce, Cheryl and Denise. When Ronald passed away, she immersed herself in dancing. She volunteers to entertain at nursing homes in Florida. She represented New York State in the Ms. Senior Citizen competition. Recently, she won the Platinum First Prize at the Showstopper International Convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and was invited to dance in Lyon, France in 2006.
UPDATE: Buchner passed away on Oct. 19, 2019 at age 99.
