After several years of poor health, Patricia Minton peacefully passed away Monday morning, October 10, 2016, at home. She had recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday with family and friends.
She was born Patricia Louise Howell in Joplin, Missouri on August 17, 1926, the last of five children born to Alexander Newton Howell and Ervie Elder “Nell” Alley. She later changed her name to Madison to honor her mother’s second husband, Stacy Madison, whom she loved dearly, and who she always considered as her father. She attended McKinley Elementary School, East Junior High and Joplin High School. To her oldest friends, she was “Pattie Lou.”
Patricia was preceded in death by both her parents and all her siblings, N. H. Howell, Marguerite Fisher, Dica Cleo Howell, (who passed in infancy), Jack Julian Madison, and nephews John Ollis Howell, Tommy Fisher, and Christopher Fisher.
Among her survivors are her son, Edward Minton, of the home, nieces Kathy Smart, Nelrena Huff, Jacklyn Maslanka, Julie Eller, Mary McFall, Debbie Fisher, and Liz Cardwell Smith; and nephews Robert Howell, Fred Howell, Stacy Madison, Steve Wilson, Jacob Wilson, David Fisher, and Jeff Fisher, all of whom she loved dearly.
Patricia was a professional working woman who did it in heels. She was outgoing, friendly and well spoken. Her first job was working as an elevator operator girl at the old Newman’s Department Store in downtown Joplin. She also worked as a switchboard operator for Southwestern Bell, and shortly after World War II, at the encouragement of her brother, Jack, who was in the Navy and stationed Washington, DC, she moved to Silver Spring, Maryland. There, she also worked as a switchboard operator at Johns Hopkins. However, in 1949, when her mother lost her eyes to glaucoma, Pat returned to Joplin to help care for. She then worked at Joplin Supply in downtown Joplin, but soon began working for A. Y. McDonald Manufacturing, where she eventually spent over thirty-two years of her working career and was once honored as Employee of the Year. She became their showroom manager, with specialized knowledge of plumbing and electrical fixtures. Over the years, she helped many area people choose fixtures for their new and remodeled homes.
Patricia met and married the love of her life, D. E. Minton, of Dunlap, Tennessee in 1950. They took up residence in Patricia’s childhood home at 227 Forest Avenue in Joplin, which had previously been home to both her parents and grandparents, and would eventually become home to their son. They enjoyed stock car racing and boating, and were charter members of the Tri-State Boating Club.
Her love for her family was first and foremost in her life. When her mother lost her sight, Pat gave up a promising future in Maryland to return home and care for her. When her sister died unexpectedly, she stepped in to bring her young niece and nephew into her home to care for them. She worked tirelessly her whole life, forsaking personal things in order to provide a good home and foundation for her family.
She attended Villa Heights and First United Methodist Churches of Joplin in the early years of her life. She loved music and dancing, and enjoyed boating, bar-b-ques, and reading. She loved JFK. Pat was a wonderful cook. Some of the best times of her life were the many summers spent relaxing with family and friends at the cabin she and D. E. rented on Grand Lake in Oklahoma.
Pat always made a point to de-emphasize the negative and to focus on the good. She kept a framed poem by Sam Walter Foss on the wall:
Let me live in a house
by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban;-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
No comments:
Post a Comment