LAWRENCE — Patricia Jean Platt Montgomery, of Lawrence, Kansas, died July 21, 2018.
She was born to Harold and Freda Platt on October 30, 1932, in the home of her grandparents, John and Alice Greer, in Marion, Kansas. Her mother was born in this same home. Patricia learned to be gritty after her mother suddenly died before she was a teen. For a number of years during the post-depression years in San Antonio, Texas, she helped her father with the household and the management of her three younger sisters.
Patricia graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Emporia State University and her master’s degree from Fort Hays State. Patricia was a life-long teacher. She taught in junior high school and at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas. To the dismay of her children, even after her retirement, she continued to voluntarily school many physicians, attorneys, accountants and other professionals in proper grammar, spelling and sentence construction.
She met her husband, John, after she was persuaded that he needed her short-hand skills while he was scouting a rival high school football team. John was an assistant coach in Junction City, Kansas, and as Patricia was by far the prettiest single woman teaching in Junction City, John convinced her that he would be unable to complete his scouting report without her assistance. This was the beginning of Patricia’s attendance at youth sporting events. Through the years, she attended countless sporting events in which John coached or her children participated.
John and Patricia moved from Junction City to Limon, Colorado, then to Great Bend in 1956. After retiring, John and Patricia traveled extensively. They spent their winters in Mesa, Arizona, and summers in Estes Park, Colorado. In 2005, they moved to Lawrence, Kansas. After 61 years of marriage, John predeceased her in 2015.
Patricia is survived by her son, Steve (Jane), Spring Hill, Kansas; daughter, Terri Schenkel (Steve), Great Bend; and son, Chris (Margaret), Richmond, Virginia; as well as seven grandchildren. Of her three younger sisters, two survive: Janette (James) Moya, Austin, Texas; and Dianne (Bob) Ott, Salina, Kansas. Carolyn Platt predeceased Patricia.
Patricia enthusiastically read and studied many American and English authors. One of her favorites was Mark Twain. She would wholeheartedly approve of Twain’s observation: “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.”
Services will be conducted on Friday, July 27, 2018, 10:30 a. m., at the First Congregational Church, Great Bend, Kansas. A private graveside service will be held at the Marion, Kansas, cemetery on Saturday, July 28, 2018. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to Hospice Care of Kansas, 117 North Washington, Great Bend, Kansas 67530.
Online condolences may be left at rumsey-yost.com.
Funeral arrangements provided by
Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home
601 Indiana St.
Lawerence, KS 66044
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune, July 24, 2018
