Patricia "Patt" P. Welcher

Patricia (Patt) Partington P. Welcher, 79 of Logan passed away at Williamsburg Retirement Center on March 13, 2018. Patricia Lee Partington was born December 6, 1938 in Oakland, California to Leo James Partington and Ruth Folsom Partington. Patty, as she was known throughout her early years was the second daughter and such a welcome addition to the family. Every picture of Patty shows her with older sister Joanne or Daddy (grinning from ear to ear) or happy Mama – or all four together.
Our Mama was a Registered Nurse and worked most of the time as a night-time Private Duty nurse or in Obstetrics and so Patty and Joanne learned to play quietly while Mama slept a few hours here and there during the day. Patty was the most adventurous of the pair and often strayed away from the front yard. This was solved by tying her up to keep her home…probably considered child abuse in today’s world but it made it possible for her to play outdoors with me. Patty attended Tolar Heights Elementary which was a K through Third grade school, then Parker Elementary, Frick Junior High and Castlemont High School, graduating in 1956.
Our brother, James Lee Partington, was born when Patt was eight years old. He claims to this day that he had three mothers! But, oh, we were all so excited. Our Daddy has in the South Pacific during to Second World War as a Merchant Marine. I remember Patty and I begging Mom to have a little brother to surprise Daddy when he returned home. She would tell her friends and they’d all laugh and laugh and Patt and I couldn’t understand what was so funny. We knew Daddy wanted a son! Such innocence. When Jim was about – well, I’m not sure…maybe a year and a half, it was decided that we girls were old enough 10 and 13, to tend the baby while mama slept so she could go back to work to help with expenses. We divided the time up so that one week it was my turn to clean house and cook meals and Patty would tend Jimmy. Then we would trade the next week. On my tending week, Jimmy and I would walk to the public swimming pool and spend most of the day there. I’m sure we both slept well those nights as it was a long walk! And we both continue to swim to this day.
Patty enjoyed singing with the high school choir and at church. I’ve tried to remember what she was involved in other than choir in high school but all I can clearly remember is that she often “borrowed” my skirts and sweaters which made me most unhappy! Patty served as a stake missionary just after high school graduation and became Patt, with two t’s, about that time. Patt was my very favorite baby-sitter.
It was about this time that Patt met and married Robert Eugene Welcher in the Salt Lake Temple on Halloween Day, 1958. Patt and Bob spent their first year or so of marriage attending BYU where, according to Bob, Patt memorized her social security number and had the first of many unhappy miscarriages. They returned to the Oakland area and ultimately they were able to start their family. Robert Todd, known as Todd was born in 1962 and Patt’s dream of becoming a “real” mama came true. Patt and Bob successfully adopted a baby girl in 1966 whom they named Holly. Finally they had a real family only to have Todd killed in a freak accident in their back-yard at the age of 4 and ½ years. Such heart-break for the little family. Then, on a happier note, within weeks they were excited to learn that Patt was again with child. Such joy and such great effort went into carrying this baby to term. Timothy Dirk Welcher was born just 11 months after Holly’s birth and seven months after Todd’s death.
By now Bob was in the Fire Department in Palo Alto, California. Patt was able to get a little more schooling at this time which we will consider in a minute. Unfortunately the marriage came apart in 1976 and Patt packed up Holly and Tim and moved to Salt Lake City. She was able to transfer to the Salt Lake office of Merrill Lynch. Here I’d like to insert a profile of Patt that was written in conjunction with an honor she received in 1983 which is mostly in her own words.
For Patt Welcher, life’s a unique learning experience.
Patt Welcher is as unique as the way she spells her name. a native of California’s Bay Area, Patt is a woman who matured in the great crossover era, somewhere between the frustrations voiced by Erma Bombeck and the ideals espoused by Gloria Steinem. But despite the confusion stirred up in the last decade by conflicting role models, Patt is a woman who has managed successfully to combine the best of both worlds for many years, mostly because of an attitude, instilled by working parents, that you can be, can do anything you want. So long before economic necessity and “Women’s Lib” pushed half of America’s women into the workforce, Patt was busily pursuing family, school and career, oblivious to the conflict all three roles logically should cause. “Why should it cause problems?” she asks. “It’s always the way I’ve handled things.”
Patt says she changed her name “to be different,” but subtle differences radiate from her. As a homemaker on San Francisco’s peninsula, Patt’s lifelong desire to learn new things smerged anew and she enrolled in a local junior college to gegin the study of widely differing subjects including literature, mythology, radiation and inhalation therapy, Native American cultures and science. She’s never directed her education goals toward a degree because, she says, “School is fun and I prefer to go where the eye takes me. In learning about any and everything, I believe you tend to learn more about yourself.”
When she “needed to go back to work,” Patt erentered the labor market at the beginning of the women’s movement and because of 13 years of prior experience in the financial field, she was offered an opportunity to become one of the first women managers in a progressive bank. She chose, instead, to accept a job as a wire operator for Merrill Lynch Investments in Palo Alto because, “I wanted the opportunity to learn something new,” she says. At first she wanted to become a broker, but later she determined she was “not a salesperson.”
After several years at Merrill Lynch in California, she transferred with the company to Salt Lake City. Later she went to work for Thompson & McKinnon and finally, three years ago, her credentials brought her to the Utah State Retirement Office where it’s her job to “get the money in and pay it out.” Her position in the Investments Department has been an excellent learning opportunity for Patt whose primary ambition these days is “to pick Richard’s (Cherry) brain so I can have a better understanding of everything in the financial area.”
Obviously, her understanding of her own job has earned her the attention of those around her. While carefully monitoring the accounts of a major bank during the past three years, Patt noticed the bank was overcharging on service fees. Her careful attention to detail paid off handsomely when the bank reimbursed the Retirement Office for $79,134. According to Bob Stringham, who recommended Patt for an Incentive Award, “If it had not been for Patt’s attentiveness and personal effort, these funds may not have been recovered.”
At home, Patt is involved with her two teenagers, Holly and Tim. Holly is a senior in high school who excels in needlework and music. Tim, according to his mother, is a typical teenaged boy who is heavily committed to athletics.
Tim married Julie and baby Taud soon came to make Patt a Grandma. Such excitement and joy she felt with this beautiful baby. Unfortunately another sad event in Patt’s life, Taud ran into the street between two cars and was hit by a car. He only lived a few hours. The marriage did not survive that accident either. Tim later married Heidi and they have two sons, Easton and Chase Welcher. Can it be possible? Tim died at age 40 of an undiagnosed congenital heart problem.
Holly married Brad Grossman and after having several children Holly and Brad moved to Colorado for a job opportunity and to be near his family.
Patt moved to Colorado to be near Holly and Brad and their little family. It was shortly after this that Patt had her first stroke. It was a severe stroke and Patt had to learn to speak once again. She came to live with Bryce and I so we could help her with her rehab. She worked hard and learned the names of coins and colors and all the things we take for granted. No matter how hard she worked, she still struggled getting her words out because of the aphasia caused by the stroke. Through her diligence she recovered sufficiently to serve a full-time mission Family History Mission in Los Angles. She became very adept in research and has so many books of our family history, many, many of the names are backed up with copies of vital records supporting her work. She returned from Los Angles to Providence for a short time and she was called to her second (or third if we count the stake mission in her youth) mission, this time to the Salt Lake Family History Center. Oh, how she loved serving there.
From this mission she moved back to Colorado to be with daughter, Holly and family. She bought a little home and loved puttering in the large yard and helping with the grandchildren, Ben, Noah, Josh, Bekka, and Sam Grossman. Oh, and her little, long haired dachshund. As the years added up and she became unable to care for her home and self, she came to live with Bryce and I, this time in Smithfield. Patt was so happy to be where she could attend the temple regularly. She was so pleased to be temple recommend worthy. Unfortunately, Patt developed renal failure and needed more help.
She moved to Williamsburg Retirement Center 2 years later, in August 2016. She enjoyed the good people she met there and enjoyed attending church with the Logan 1st Branch which meets at Williamsburg. Hospice was such a help in managing her problems and Patt was able to be involved with the temple and the activities as she wished until recently. In fact, her kind Hospice nurse called me on February 26 and told me she was doing so well that he would probably have to discontinue her Hospice care. When Bryce and I stopped by the very next day we found her in a great deal of pain and very distressed. Nurse David was there shortly and we chuckled a bit about his prediction as he helped settle her down.
It was two weeks to the day, March 13 that Patt returned to her Heavenly Home to be greeted by her parents, Ruth and Leo Partington, her two sons, Todd and Tim and grandson, Taud. She will be missed by many but we know she is enjoying her pain free body, perhaps she will even join a heavenly choir.
A Funeral Service will be held on Friday March 16, 2018 at the Young Adult Ward LDS Building located at 300 South Main Providence at 11:00 AM with a viewing from 9:30 A.M till 10:30 A.M at the same location. She will be laid to rest in the Providence City Cemetery following the service. Funeral Service is under the direction of Cache Valley Mortuary. 80 West 4200 North, Hyde Park. 435-787-8514 Please share a memory of Patt at www.cvmortuary.com