Patricia Collins

Patricia Collins, 85, of Butler passed away Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler.

To put it simply, Pat enjoyed and cared about people. She also took great pride in her family and her work as a nurse.

She traveled far and wide with her husband, Kevin, to the Soviet Union, China, Egypt and Europe, but what she remembered most about the trips was the people she met, especially those who needed reminders or some help with their meds!

Her favorite trips were with family or to visit family, with her most favorite destination being Lake Lotawana, where she taught her children, grandchildren and many others, to water ski and to love water.

Pat was born in Kansas City, to Herbert and Rose Meagher.

She graduated from Avila College with a B.S. in nursing.

She moved with her husband and four boys from Kansas City to Middletown, Ohio, before they made Butler their home in the early 1960s.

After her sons were in school, she returned to nursing, working at Sunnyview. While working at Sunnyview, she took on the midlife challenge of returning to school at night to earn a master’s and become certified as a nurse practitioner. She later developed the program and taught nursing assistant skills at the Butler Area Vocational-Technical School. She concluded her career as a school nurse.

Through it all, it was the people she worked with, the students and the patients — each as an individual — that mattered most to her. The irony is bittersweet that Pat spent her final years struggling with Alzheimer’s back at Sunnyview, under the gentle care of some of her former students.

Pat was preceded in death by her husband, Kevin; her brother, Herb; and her daughter-in-law, Laura.

She is survived by her brother, Mike (Cheryl) Meagher; her sister, Marty (Hugh Downey); her brother-in-law, Con Collins; her sons and daughters-in-law, Kevin, Brian (Margie), Bert (Angie) and Eric; her six grandchildren, Ryan, Erin (Keith Lemons), Sean, Kristen (Sydney Ware), Ana (Andrew Smith) and Grant (Rachel Mason); and two great-grandchildren, Tess Lemons and Miles Herbert Ware. They are scattered throughout the U.S. and abroad on any given day.

COLLINS — A Mass of Christian burial for Patricia Collins, who died Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church, 432 Center Ave., Butler.

Interment will follow at St. Michael Cemetery.

Due to current mandates and restrictions, everyone attending is to respect social distancing, and provide and wear a facial covering.

Arrangements are being completed by Geibel Funeral Home, 201 E. Cunningham St., Butler.

For more information or to leave an online condolence, please visit www.geibelfuneralhome.com.