On Wednesday January 27, 2021, Marion Patricia (Pat) Kobielus Pace, loving wife, and mother of two children, passed away peacefully at 11:29 AM in Englewood, Florida at the age of 99- and one-half years, exactly.
Pat was born on July 27, 1921 in Ladysmith Wisconsin to John and Martha Kobielus, the third of six children, and the only girl, born to the couple. Pat was an adventurous child, always striving to prove that she was fully equal to any of the boys in the family. She was considered a “tom boy” and excelled at both sports and academics.
Pat began working at the age of 11 as a part time clerical assistant in a Ladysmith law firm and later at the local J.C. Penny department store, helping to support her family during the Great Depression. She graduated from Ladysmith High School in 1939 and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1941, joining her brother Jack who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and brother Paul, who was a United States Marine. She quickly obtained a position with the Federal Government utilizing her many managerial skills and was proud of being given the honor of cutting the ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for (Ronald Reagan) Washington National Airport in 1941. During World War II, she rose to management in the United States Post Office Department where she worked until 1970 when she transferred to the Veterans Administration. Pat served as a Senior Management Data Analyst, performing hospital staff workflow analysis of patient care procedures and hospital management policy. She and her husband, Russell, whom she married on February 21, 1951 in Arlington, Virginia, both ended their careers with the Federal Government in 1979. The couple retired to Port Charlotte, Florida where they joyously rode their mopeds, played chess, enjoyed the Gulf beaches, and explored the flora and fauna in their “tropical paradise” until Russell passed away in 1981.
Pat loved maps and cartography and spent the rest of the decade traveling the world, visiting most countries in Europe and the Mediterranean via freighter and cruise ships and driving her recreational vehicles across the continental United States and Canada with her trusty canine companion, Sir Thomas Cameron of Thistledown.
Pat loved to tell stories about her childhood, especially stories about her antics jumping off the logging bridge over the Flambeau River in Ladysmith, experiencing the glee of frightening her parents to death, and daring the other children to match her courage. One story that she repeated many times over the years told of how superstitious her “Grandma Finnegan” (Julia Ann Lynch Finnegan) was. It seems that Grandma Finnegan lived across the street from the town funeral home and was frightened by the possibility that “spooks and ghosts” might be out and about if “Charlie the Undertaker” had “a fresh deader” awaiting burial. When that happened, Pat was called on to spend the night with Grandma so she wouldn’t be alone and was regularly awakened in the wee hours by great splashes of Holy Water that landed “accidentally” directly in her face. Fully aroused, she was then pressed into service to remain awake, while Grandma proceeded to entertain herself by telling elaborate and scary ghost stories until sunrise. The laughter from Pat’s stories of her childhood experiences can still be heard today.
Pat loved learning, and while working a rigorous full-time job, she attended business classes at American University in Washington, DC and spent hundreds of lunch hours in the National Archives doing genealogical research, one of her passions. She was devoted to her husband, supporting the “management end” of his small business in Silver Spring, Maryland, Studio R, a working ceramics teaching studio and workshop during the early 1950’s. Once her children arrived, she took pleasure in their extracurricular activities, serving as Den Mother for Blake’s Boy Scouting troops and as a “Team Mom” and Competition Lane Judge for Kathryn’s Swim and Dive teams. She was an expert seamstress and a certified Water Safety Instructor, teaching swimming and lifesaving for the Y.M.C.A. and the Gardens of Gulf Cove Homeowners Association Swim Center.
In later years, Pat volunteered with many service organizations in Florida including several churches and public shelters where she prepared, served, and delivered meals to those in need. She extensively studied Biblical history and world religions including religious metaphysics and the paranormal. To say that Pat was ahead of her time does not do justice to her tenacity, intellect, persistence, or her character. Pat Pace was a force of nature, goal oriented, strongly opinionated, and fiercely independent. She was an inspiration to many, and if she loved you, you could not help but know it, even when she vehemently disagreed with you. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends.
Pat was preceded in death by her parents, John and Martha (Finnegan) Kobielus, her brothers Carl, Walter (Walt), Wilbur (Bill), John (Jack), Paul, and her husband of thirty years, M. Russell Pace. She is survived by her two loving and heartbroken children, Blake Charles Pace and Kathryn Patricia Pace, three grandchildren, Kellye Jenette Mendoza, Russell Blake Franz Kaufman-Pace, and Robert Patrick Pace. Pat is also survived by her sister-in-law, Joan Kobielus, 5 nieces and 5 nephews. She will be interred on a date yet to be determined next to her husband in the family’s burial plot at St. John’s Episcopal Church, in Hampton Virginia. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to either Tidewell Hospice of Venice, Florida or the Activity Fund of Heritage Oaks of Englewood, Florida.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
v.1.8.18