Paul L. Bohanna adored his family and was a great example of a father and a husband, said his daughter Shyla Kelcy.
Three weeks was the longest he and his wife Gladys had been apart in 34 years of marriage.
That occurred when Kelcy was stationed at an Air Force base in Japan and Gladys Bohanna traveled there to be with their daughter when her first child was born.
Other than the trip to Japan, Paul and Gladys Bohanna were “inseparable.”
“You never saw one without the other,” Kelcy said.
Though Bohanna never had biological children, his five kids all called him dad.
“He told us that he prayed for a woman with children because he didn’t have any of his own. He met my mom and walked into a ready-made family,” Kelcy said. “My mother couldn’t have picked a better person for her and for us.”
Bohanna, 69, died Feb. 4 in Banner Ironwood Medical Center in Queen Creek, Ariz., due to Covid-19.
Bohanna contracted the novel coronavirus after his wife tested positive following a visit to see a friend, who had just moved into a brand new home, Kelcy said. The friend’s husband didn’t know at the time of the visit that he had Covid-19.
“Mom got it first and took it home,” Kelcy said.
Born Feb. 20, 1951, in Montgomery, W. Va., Bohanna moved to Buffalo with his family as a child.
He was an altar boy at the former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Buffalo and graduated from Father Baker High School, Kelcy said.
He attended Buffalo State College and was a Scottish Rite Mason.
Bohanna relocated to Florence, Ariz., seven years ago with his wife after he retired from Niagara Mohawk, where he had worked for 35 years as a licensed electrician.
While in Buffalo, he was an active member of Mount Olive Baptist Church for 28 years, serving on the Usher Board and in the Video Ministry. He and Gladys celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows at Mount Olive.
In Arizona, he was an elder at Solid Foundation Bible Church located in Apache Junction. He also was a certified Biblical counselor and led a marriage ministry alongside his wife.
“He was a faithful servant. He read the Bible every day. He studied Bible like people watch TV,” Kelcy said.
Bohanna loved his morning coffee, traveling and listening to spiritual music, according to his family.
Bohanna is survived by three sons, Antoyne and Donyale Evans and Ivory Robinson Jr.; another daughter, Deanna Evans; three brothers, Clyde, Ernest Gladden and Cornelius Johnson Jr.; 16 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services were held at Mount Olive Baptist Church on Saturday. It was a true homegoing service, his family said. It would have been his 70th birthday.
