Obituary of Patricia Leigh

A Celebration of Life service for Patricia Leigh will take place Saturday, July 12, 2014 at 2:00 pm at Patricia's home at 2504 Lakeside Avenue in Wahpeton, Iowa. A private family interment service will take place at Okoboji Cemetery in Arnolds Park, Iowa. Patricia Lee Leigh was born to Jake and Opal (Stephenson) Williams of Milford, Iowa, on April 15, 1927. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1949 with a degree in Home Management. She was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She met her future husband, Robert Leigh of Charles City, while attending Iowa State. He was a returning WWII veteran attending college on the GI Bill. They were married August 28, 1948, during their senior year. In 1952 they relocated to Marion, Indiana, after Bob accepted a position with RCA. In 1976 they relocated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when Bob was promoted to engineering manager of color tube design. After retiring in 1984, they divided their time between Lancaster and Lake Okoboji, living on the west lake during the summer months in the lake cottage originally purchased by Pat's parents. When in Lancaster, they spent much of their time traveling in the eastern United States and acquainting themselves with the beauty and culture of that region. They traveled to Hawaii to celebrate their forty-second anniversary. Following Bob's death in 1990, Pat began planning the construction of a new lake home they had long hoped to build together. At age sixty-seven she oversaw the design and construction of the lake house she lived in and loved for the remainder of her life. Pat was an active volunteer in Marion and Lancaster. She was a den mother for the Cub Scouts and volunteered with the Hospital Auxiliary, Meals on Wheels, and Red Cross Pet Therapy programs. Locally, she was a member of the Union Memorial Church and the Wahpeton Lakeville Club. Pat enjoyed travel, gardening, cooking, and arts and crafts. She helped organize a Marion Gourmet Club that sponsored internationally-themed meals prepared by club members on a rotating basis. Her art interests included oil painting, watercoloring, mosaics, stained glass, interior decorating, and making decorative objects for her own home. She was an award-winning exhibitor in the annual shows at the Grant County Art Association. Recently, she was a member of the volunteer team that assembled the mosaic in Spencer Park. She delighted in teaching her grandsons and other children how to make mosaics and enter their work in the Clay County Fair. Pat passed away March 29, 2014 at her home in Wahpeton at eighty-six years of age. Pat was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and brother, Jacob Williams of Midland, Texas. Survivors are son, John and wife Kathleen of La Grange, Illinois, daughter, Tracey Heitritter of Arnolds Park, Iowa, grandsons, Jake and Ben Heitritter and Mickey, her beloved four-legged companion. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the Humane Society of Northwest Iowa or Lakes Regional Healthcare Hospice Cancer Fund.