Sonny Bono (1935-1998) began his career as a songwriter and singer in the 1960s. Performing with his girlfriend (later wife) as Sonny and Cher, he hit the pop charts with his song "I Got You Babe". Sonny and Cher had a number of hits and made a movie called "Good Times". They eventually starred in their own TV show in the early 1970s, but marital tensions led to their divorce and Sonny leaving the show.

Sonny dropped from the public's view for a long while, then made headlines when he was elected mayor of Palm Springs, CA, in 1988. He followed that up with election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 from California's 44th District.

He was killed in a skiing accident in 1998.

The memorial is a small plaque in one of DC's "handkerchief" parks -- a small triangle formed by the intersection of a lettered street, a numbered street, and one of the diagonal avenues. The plaque reads "To My Friend" but there is no indication of who raised the memorial to Bono.