Editing Bonnie Nettles

{{short description|American religious leader (1927–1985)}}
{{Use American English|date = November 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = November 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Bonnie Nettles
| image              = Bonnie_Nettles.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Bonnie Lu Trousdale
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1927|8|29}}
| birth_place        = [[Houston, Texas]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1985|6|19|1927|8|29}}
| death_place        = [[Dallas, Texas]], U.S.
| other_names        = Ti, Peep, Pig, Shelly West
| occupation         = [[Registered nurse]]
| known_for          = Co-leader of [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]]
| spouse             = {{marriage|Joseph Segal Nettles|1949|1973|end=divorced}}
| children           = 4
}}

'''Bonnie Lu Nettles''' ([[Birth name|née]] '''Trousdale'''; August 29, 1927 – June 19, 1985), later known as '''Ti''' ({{IPAc-en|t|iː}}; {{Respell|TEE}}), was an American [[religious leader]] and nurse who was co-founder and co-leader along with [[Marshall Applewhite]] of the [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]] [[new religious movement]]. Nettles died of [[melanoma]] metastatic to the liver in 1985 in [[Dallas, Texas]], twelve years before the group's [[mass suicide]] in March 1997.<ref name="Dulcinea">{{cite web|url=http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/March-April-08/On-this-Day--39-Heaven-s-Gate-Cult-Members-Found-Dead-after-Mass-Suicide.html|title=On This Day: Bodies of Heaven's Gate Cult Members Discovered After Mass Suicide|date=March 26, 2011|publisher=findingdulcinea.com}}</ref>

==Early life==
Bonnie Nettles was born on August 29, 1927, and raised in [[Houston, Texas]], into a [[Baptist]] family.<ref name="Glory">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/us/eyes-on-glory-pied-pipers-of-heaven-s-gate.html?sec=health&pagewanted=1|title=Eyes on Glory: Pied Pipers of Heaven's Gate|last=Bearak|first=Barry|date=April 28, 1997|page=2|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> As an adult, she moved away from the religion. After becoming a [[registered nurse]], she married businessman Joseph Segal Nettles in December 1949, with whom she had four children. Their marriage remained mostly stable until 1972, at which time, according to ''[[The New York Times]]'', she began attempting to contact deceased spirits by conducting regular [[Séance|seances]] and came to believe that a 19th-century [[monk]] named Brother Francis frequently spoke with her and gave her instructions. She also visited multiple [[Fortune-telling|fortunetellers]] who told her that she was soon to meet a mysterious man who was tall with light hair and a fair complexion, descriptions which were fairly close to Marshall Applewhite's appearance.<ref name="Glory" /> Nettles also studied [[astrology]], [[Theosophy]], and the [[occult]].

==Introduction to Applewhite==
{{see also|Marshall Applewhite}}
Nettles met [[Marshall Applewhite]] in March 1972, though where they met is uncertain. In his writings, Applewhite claimed to have been "visiting a hospitalized friend when Mrs. Nettles entered the room and their eyes locked in a shared recognition of esoteric secrets." However, Applewhite's writings were prone to [[hyperbole]] or relaying everything as some occurrence of [[fate]]. Terrie Nettles, Bonnie's daughter, worked at a theater where Applewhite produced weekend children's shows and taught in an in-house [[drama school]]. She has stated that "someone got hurt at the drama school in the theater that Herff [Applewhite] worked at. Herff accompanied the injured person to the hospital where he met Bonnie."<ref name="Glory" /> Joe Nettles, one of Bonnie's sons, was not entirely sure how they met or whether their first meeting was at the theater.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tragedy Painful, Familiar to Man Who Lost Mom to Applewhite Cult|last=Dalton|first=Red|date=March 29, 1977|work=San Diego Union-Tribune|page=A11|location=San Diego, California}}</ref>

Nettles agreed to perform an [[Astrology|astrological reading]] for Applewhite. They had an almost instantaneous "spiritual" connection; Applewhite decided that Nettles was "to be the sage, he the speaker." They left together on New Year's Day of 1973. Nettles' three youngest children were left to remain with their father, while her oldest daughter, Terrie, then aged 20 and skeptical of her mother's ideas, fended for herself.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/us/eyes-on-glory-pied-pipers-of-heaven-s-gate.html?sec=health&pagewanted=4|title=Eyes on Glory: Pied Pipers of Heaven's Gate|last=Bearak|first=Barry|date=April 28, 1997|page=4|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Nettles and Applewhite established [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]] together as equals, with Nettles running the group and Applewhite speaking for her. Nettles claimed to have communicated with aliens about the Next Level and told Applewhite to tell their followers. In 1976, Applewhite recognized Nettles as higher up on the level of command than he was.

==Death==
Many events passed in creation of the Heaven's Gate group and the formation of its core members, with Nettles continuing to act as the interpreter of signs and the [[Mysticism|mystic]] of the group. In 1983, she had to have an eye removed due to cancer, and her doctor informed her that the disease was already spreading through the rest of her body. Nettles stated that the doctor was ignorant and believed, along with Applewhite, that she could not die, as they had to ascend together. The cancer continued to worsen, moving to her [[liver]]. Nettles died on June 19, 1985, at [[Parkland Memorial Hospital]] in [[Dallas, Texas]]. While there as a patient, she used the pseudonym Shelly West.<ref name="Glory" /><ref name="Zeller, Benjamin 2014, p. 113">[[Zeller, Benjamin]] ''Heaven's Gate, America's UFO Religion'', 2014, p. 113</ref>

Applewhite convinced the rest of the group that Nettles' "broken-down vehicle was left behind". He had her body [[cremation|cremated]] and her ashes were then spread upon a lake somewhere in Texas.<ref name="Glory" /> Applewhite explained to the group that Nettles had left because her work was done on this level but that he himself still had more that he had to do. Applewhite also said that Nettles would continue to help them from the Next Level.

Scholars have viewed the death of Nettles as a key turning point in the history of Heaven's Gate, as it caused the theology to shift from a belief that they would physically [[Entering heaven alive|ascend to heaven while alive]] aboard a UFO to viewing the body as merely a "vehicle" for the soul which would be discarded upon entering heaven, which would culminate in the group's mass suicide in 1997.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zeller|first=Benjamin Ethan|author-link=Benjamin E. Zeller |date=2006-11-01|title=Scaling Heaven's Gate: Individualism and Salvation in a New Religious Movement|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-abstract/10/2/75/95305/Scaling-Heaven-s-Gate-Individualism-and-Salvation?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=Nova Religio|language=en|volume=10|issue=2|pages=75–102|doi=10.1525/nr.2006.10.2.75|issn=1092-6690|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Nicknames==
Applewhite and Nettles went by the collective of "The Two", as well as the singular names [[Little Bo-Peep|"Bo" and "Peep"]] respectively<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AASB&p_theme=aasb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EA057EA0487DC3E&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=Central Texas was cult's early recruiting ground|last=Phillips|first=Jim|date=March 29, 1997|work=Austin American-Statesman|page=A10|location=Austin, Texas}}</ref> and later [[Solfege|"Do" and "Ti"]],<ref name="Dulcinea" /> along with [[Guinea pig|"Guinea" and "Pig"]] at some points in time.<ref name="Glory" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Heaven's Gate}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nettles, Bonnie}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:American women nurses]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in Texas]]
[[Category:Founders of new religious movements]]
[[Category:Former Baptists]]
[[Category:Converts to new religious movements from Christianity]]
[[Category:Heaven's Gate (religious group)]]
[[Category:People from Dallas]]
[[Category:People from Houston]]
[[Category:20th-century American women]]
[[Category:20th-century mystics]]
[[Category:Women mystics]]
[[Category:American women religious leaders]]
[[Category:New religious movement mystics]]
[[Category:American women founders]]
[[Category:American founders]]
[[Category:20th-century American nurses]]