Patricia Collins

Patricia Collins, 85, of Butler passed away Saturday, November 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 nurse. She traveled far and wide with her husband, Kevin, to the Soviet Union, China, Egypt, Europe, but what she remembered most about the trips was the people she met, especially those that 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 mid-life 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 Vo-Tech 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, brother, Herb, and daughter-in-law, Laura. She is survived by her brother, Mike (Cheryl) Meagher, and sister, Marty (Hugh Downey), brother-in-law, Con Collins, her sons and daughters-in-law, Kevin, Brian (Margie), Bert (Angie), and Eric, as well as 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 US and abroad on any given day.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be Celebrated at 10:00 am Wednesday at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church, 432 Center Ave, Butler, PA 16001. Interment will follow at St. Michael Cemetery. Arrangements completed by Geibel Funeral Home, 201 East Cunningham St. Butler PA, 16001.

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