Patricia M Burke

Patricia Marie Burke passed away on February 21, 2025, lovingly surrounded by family. Born May 9, 1926 to parents Orrin Leonard Converse and Clara Estelle Snow Converse, Patty grew up a city girl in Jackson, Michigan with four brothers. After attending Jackson Business College, she married Walter Martin Burke, a dairy farmer, on March 2, 1947. Their love for each other remained solid and true for all of their 78 years.

Pat liked to tell the story that when Walter brought her to his farm in Addison, Michigan, there was only a hand pump in the kitchen and an outhouse. It wasn’t long before he installed a new sink with running water and built an indoor bathroom for his bride. Then the babies arrived, one after another, all girls. Often with a baby on her hip, she sewed the girls’ clothes, froze garden produce, chauffeured to Girl Scouts, 4-H, sports, tap, music, church, and more.

Besides raising a passel of daughters, she and Walter took in children with disabilities, welcomed a dozen exchange students and foreign students at Michigan State University (MSU) who didn’t have a place to go on holidays.

She served the community as Hillsdale County Fair manager, with Kiwanis, Meals on Wheels, Sunday School and 4-H. She was very proud of her MSU Extension Nutritionist work. She and Walter traveled across the United States, Europe and Egypt. They sold the Addison farm, built a house in McGregor Texas in 2000, bought a house in Holland, Michigan with daughter Deanna in 2005, and later moved into Heidi’s McGregor farm in 2017.

Patricia kept up on current events as well as news about our large extended family. She was funny and feisty and not afraid to share her. A voracious reader, she was reading about a book a week (apologies to the library for all the coffee stains and markups), and still texting people up to the time of her passing.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Orrin Layton Jr., Jack Leland, Gerald (Jerry) and James Leonard, as well as her oldest daughter Deanna Marie Hansen, who sadly passed in 2019. Surviving are husband Walter, age 100.5, daughters Pamela Burke, Deborah Leonard and husband Mark, Sandra Slowey and husband David, Rebecca Burke, Heidi Foster and husband Ottis, Martha Burrell and husband Harold, grandchildren Benjamin/Katheryn, Jonathan/Lindsea, Bethany/Jayson, Matthew/Wendy,

Jack/Eden, Anna/Michael, Stacia/Mack, Jenna/Chris, Andrea/Mark, Zane, Preston/Kennedy, Jackie/Isaac and great grandchildren Emma, Peter, Nora, David, Martin, Evelyn, Lynnx, Ottilie, Awna, Ara and A’yia. She also will be missed by her Converse, Burke, Strobel and Baker nieces and nephews.

A special thanks goes out to her Hospice team and caregivers.

A memorial will be held in Michigan in the future when once again, like on her 90th birthday, we can sing her favorite song, Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). She was the heart and soul of our family, and she will be dearly missed. In honor of Patricia’s generous spirit, donations may be sent in her name to your local Hospice, Library, Meals on Wheels, 4-H or Women's Resource Center.