Rent-to-own News - Bonnie Nitzsche dies today at her home

Long time rent to own vendor and advocate Bonnie Nitzsche "The Flyer Specialist" died Tuesday at her home in Cincinnati after a 14-year battle with Myeloma cancer

A former Mary Kay consultant, Nitzsche is largely credited with introducing the industry to four-color print advertising in 1988. She was a fierce supporter of the industry and her clients -- mostly small independent rent to own dealers -- ever since.

Her artistic talent couldn't have come at a better time for the growing rent to own industry which was beginning to wrestle with its public image and the negative legislation spawned by it.

When two bills on Capital Hill threatened the industry in 1993, Nitzsche stepped up to the plate. When APRO asked for her help, she designed, printed and mailed out informational posters for dealers to display, fully explaining the rental purchase transaction.

The next year, then-APRO President Kevin Quinn presented Nitzsche with APRO's 1994 Norm Smith Vendor of the Year award for her contributions to the industry, in what she called one of her proudest moments.

"That really showed that Bonnie's heart was in the rent-to-own industry." Quinn said, "Without the Bonnie Nitzsches of the world, we probably wouldn't have gotten our message out."

She was an active member of the Ohio Rental Dealers Association from 1987-1997,  serving on the board eight of those ten years. An APRO member and preferred TRIB Group vendor for more than 20 years, Nitzsche has never taken her role in the industry lightly.

Throughout her illness, Nitzsche's glowing smile and sparkling eyes are what friends and colleagues remember. A reflection of her inner grace and boundless compassion. 

In 2008, due to health reasons, Nitzsche turned her graphic design and professional "on-hold" message recording business -- The Niche Connection -- over to her sons. Read more about Bonnie Nitzsche here.

"When I die, it's not because the cancer has taken me," Nitzsche said in a previous interview, "It's because it was my time. That's the way I look at it."

Funeral arrangements to follow.