Patricia Anne Schmechel died on her 89th birthday in Butte, Montana, where she was born. Patsy to her family and friends, she was born at home on March 23, 1930 in the early months of the Great Depression to first generation Irish Americans, Patrick F. and Helen A. (Shea) O’Connor, and raised in a three-room shotgun duplex on South Dakota Street with her brother William (Oakie) and sister Marlene. A precocious learner and excellent student, Patsy was taught to read as a young child by her father while he was on furlough from his job as a mine timekeeper with The Anaconda Company.
She graduated from Saint Joseph’s Catholic Grade School and Butte Girls Central Catholic High School. Patsy received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry from Montana State University (then Montana State College) and worked with the US Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Idaho Falls, Idaho. She married Warren P. (Paul) Schmechel in December 1952.
Together they had seven children, born in cities across Montana as their lives unfolded with his Montana Power Company career, beginning as a Junior Engineer in Billings and culminating as Board Chair and CEO in Butte, with stops in Lewistown, Mill Town, Missoula, and Cut Bank in between. In all these places they made many lifelong friendships, but Patsy, a Butte girl through and through, was happiest living and raising her family in her hometown. Together she and Paul enjoyed 42 years of marriage before Paul’s death in January 1994.
Her family and her community were her life’s work. Always encouraging and sometimes correcting, Patsy was a loving and dedicated daughter, sister, niece, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend. A true child of the Great Depression, Patsy was a lifelong saver, recycler, and re-user, believing in the virtue of sustainability long before there was a term for it.
She was a committed Catholic who believed that all the gifts she received in life, and she knew she enjoyed many, were received by the grace of God and brought on by faithfulness and hard work. Patsy was a long-standing parishioner of the Immaculate Conception Church in Butte and a tireless volunteer, teaching Catholic religious education to schoolchildren, serving on the parish council, and conducting the church choir. She was also an active community volunteer, serving as a long-time Multiple Sclerosis Society board member, fund raising for the Butte YMCA, and generously supporting many community projects.
A woman of great dignity and purpose, Patsy was also a woman who enjoyed a good laugh. She retained a sense of humor about herself even as her health declined. Above all, Patsy was a great mother to her seven children and either forgot or forgave their flaws (and there are a few).
In her words, she “loved them to pieces,” and she was well loved in return. Patsy was preceded in death by her parents, Patrick and Helen, brother Oakie and his wife, Patsy’s dear friend Eileen, sister Marlene, and beloved husband Paul. She is survived by her children Marjorie (John Strader), Jim, Joan (Sandy Ferraro), Mike (Chris), Dan (Mimi Wright), Bill (Cindy Bergum), and Steve, by her grandchildren Rachel and Christina Ferraro, Sydney Strader, and Matt (Angie), Joe (Sarah), Tyler (Jill), Kathryn, Quincy, and Miya Schmechel, and great grandson Adrian Ferraro, by her brothers-in-law Laurence Dunville and Mike Schmechel (Mary Lou), and by her Schmechel, O’Connor, Dunville, Hertel, and Hawthorne nieces and nephews.
She is also survived by her dear, lifelong friends Jeanne Hanley and Marie Kadillak, who are also Butte girls through and through. Patsy’s family will receive friends Saturday, March 30th beginning at 10 o’clock in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church where Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 o’clock. A reception following at the Finlen Hotel.
In lieu of flowers, Patsy’s family asks that donations in her memory be made to Butte Central Catholic Schools or to the W. Paul Schmechel Engineering Scholarship at Montana State University. Her family would like to thank the many people who were so kind to Patsy in her later years, including Pat Foley, Rosalie Butorovich, the residents and staff at The Springs, and the staff at Saint James Healthcare in Butte. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Patricia Anne Schmechel please visit our Sympathy Store.
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