Pattie Calton

Pattie Jo Cahill was born on June 20th 1945, just a few months before the end of WW2. She was born to Cora “Irene” (Key) Cahill and Raymond Patrick “Pat” Cahill. They are buried in the Versailles Cemetery. She was born in Carrollton, Missouri at Staton Clinic and Hospital. Her parents were nomads and she ended up attending 17 different schools during her childhood. (There is detailed information about that below - if you are interested). She had her first daughter at the age of 17 and was married to her father John Petcoff for about 5 years. Their daughter was Chris Petcoff and was born in 1963. They lived in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Once their marriage ended she moved back to Missouri. She was married again and had another child, a boy. He was born in 1970. He was “taken” by his father without permission and she didn’t find him again until 1996. Her third marriage was to Bill Calton who passed away in 2009. They met at Brown’s shoe factory and were married for 35 years. They had one daughter in 1984. Bill was one of 14. Pat knew their birth years by heart and could rattle them off in order. She also knew each of the 29 nieces and nephews by heart. In her life, she valued history, buying and trading guns, knives, and junk. She greatly enjoyed remembering moments in time through photography. She greatly valued family, friends and being a Child of Christ. For years, she was a frequent flyer at family reunions. She regularly attended the Calton and Hibdon family reunions. She took hundreds of photos to remember these events. She visited every cemetery she could find She documented cemeteries for miles and miles. Even at 70 years young, one day, she and I went to the Silvey, Bond, and Holst cemeteries and she was on a mission, snapping pictures of headstones, seemingly unnoticing the scorching 95-degree heat. Her youngest daughter was with her, melting and gasping for air and had to go sit in the car and turn on the AC, but Pat continued to capture a photos of almost every single headstone in the 3 cemeteries without even breaking a sweat. The only thing that stopped her that day was a swarm of bees that came out of a metal headstone that caused them both to seek shelter in the car, calling it a day. Pat and Linda Appleton, a member of the Morgan County Historical Society, photographed all of the headstones in the sprawling old section of the Versailles cemetery. This task was a big one, due to the size of the Versailles cemetery, but never-the-less she and Linda completed it without fail. The photographs are stored at the Morgan County Historical Society along with photographs of the Rocky Mount Union Cemetery and Bond Cemetery. She also photographed all of the Rockdale cemetery as well as mapped out and photographed all of the graves at Big Rock Cemetery and created a book dedicated to it. All in an effort to help folks from near and far find their loved one’s final resting places. She documented a total of 7 cemeteries, encompassing thousands of graves. For ages, she dug deep into the roots of ancestry. She had a true passion and talent for genealogy research. She researched family upon family upon family. She complied thousands of pages of lineages to help people better understand their family tree. She created books for the Calton, Hibdon, Key, Street, Isom, Nance, McFarland, McCasland, and Cahill families. She was a modern-day family tree whisperer, responding to Facebook and random requests from folks far and wide, eager to help dig into their family roots. She was a talented photographer. She captured the magic of weddings and the beauty of nature, and let's not forget the requests from her teen daughters for glamor shots to send to their latest crush. She loved visiting with family and friends. She spent an unimaginable amount of time chatting in coffee shops, front yards, on the phone and has truly been in her happy place when she was surrounded by loved ones. She truly had a desire to connect with and help others! Her spirit was determined when it came to helping others. She went the extra mile to return lost treasures, from baby photos and family bibles to even a vintage snapshot from 1926. She was like a detective, tracking down folks from Kansas to Phoenix to reunite them with their precious belongings. She adored visiting historical sites. You couldn’t drive by a memorial or museum with her without stopping so she could do tour and take photos. She visited car museums, war memorials, schoolhouse museums, jail museums, covered bridges across Indiana, and old forts. The list is endless. She was a proud member of the Barnett Community Social Club aka “The Toxic Club” for 14 years. She enjoyed endless hours of fun with this crew. They were entertained by Mennonite music, had Halloween parties, Christmas parties, St. Patty’s and birthday parties. For nearly two decades, Pat & Bill hustled every summer weekend setting up at the Versailles Flea Market. They made deals, accumulated heaps of stuff, met incredible people, and built lifelong friendships. Even after they stopped setting up, they kept visiting their beloved flea market for another 15+ years. Pat attended Golden Beach Church for a number of years and helped out with several events to include- Biker’s Rally and Vacation Bible School. She served as a board member for 2 years. She attended bible study at the Women’s Ministry House and attended 5th Sunday for a number of years. In 2010, she joined the Morgan County Historical Society, a place where her love for history and genealogy was embraced and she flourished . She was their Historian. During her time at the museum she gave tours, helped record museum inventory, attended ice cream socials and was a member of the board for nearly 10 years. She taught a genealogy class, scanned thousands of obituaries, and worked in the genealogy room where she helped many families research their lineage. During her time at the Morgan County Historical Society and wrote 3 books to include the History of the Rail Roads of Morgan County, The Poor Farm, and the History of the Mills of Morgan County. At the time of her death she was working on a book about the history of Barnett, which her daughter finished and is available at the Morgan County Historical Society. Her incredible contributions to the genealogy room lead the Morgan County Historical Society to dedicate the genealogy room to her name, in her honor. She developed many valued relationships with the owner and patrons of the Lovelight Coffee Shop. She embraced their mission to send individuals struggling with addiction to rehab. She spent many mornings chatting with friends and afternoons in fellowship at bible study at Lovelight Coffee Shop. With endless creativity, she sewed and crocheted her way through mountains of projects. From clothes that fit her daughter's never-ending legs to cute outfits for Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kids. She made poodle skirts, dresses for Little Miss Pageants, troll dresses and dresses with cumberbuns. She crocheted hats, scarves, baby afghans, adult sized afghans, personalized name signs, angels, and Indian dresses. She held a variety of jobs including waitress, cook, and multiple factory jobs. She worked at Fasco for 25 years. She made a lot of friends there along the way. She and Bill spent countless hours after her work days at Fasco at Randles or Silver Saddle visiting with friends. Heck, she was at the Silver Saddle so much, she might as well have been on the payroll! In fact, she eventually started working there after she agreed to “help out for 2 weeks” and ended up staying for 6 years! She was quirky, friendly, and fun. She had countless friendships. She was very bright. She used her knowledge to help countless people and impress many with all she knew about a variety of subjects. She is deeply missed by many! – The following is a summary of her childhood which she wrote a 37 page memoir about -- She lived with her parents in Coloma, Missouri until she was 6 months old. Coloma only had one store a few houses. They lived in a house only a mile or so from where her mother (Irene Key) lived when she was a child. Her mother loved living near Bogard and Coloma but her father (Pat Cahill) was a wanderer and they moved many, many times before settling down for their retirement in Gravois. Pat’s first move was from Coloma to Texas when her older brother (Bobby Bowen) contracted tuberculosis. However, when they got to Texas Pat’s dad decided he didn’t want to live there, and so they turned around and moved to a farm near Camdenton Missouri where they stayed about a year. It was near the Lake of the Ozarks and her father was an avid fisherman so it was a perfect place for them. They left mid-Missouri at that time and moved to Standish, Missouri where her Aunt Bess had a brand new chicken house - so they moved into it! They had a dirt floor and used quilts to section off areas to make bedrooms. They only lived there for one summer while her dad looked for a more suitable place. It was around this time she got her first stitches when her brother Bobby shut her hand in a car door. Everyone said it hurt Bob more than it hurt Pat and he cried over it much longer than she did. When she was around 65 years old she wrote the story of her life she said “I’m now 65 years old and still have the scar to remember him by”. They moved from the chicken house to Sharon store, located about ten mild from Slater in Saline County. Around this time, her brother Bobby - who was 14 years older than her - moved to Indiana to work for Western Electric where he lived until he died - excluding the four years he spent in the Air Force during the Korean War. She had fond memories living in Sharon - her parents operated a small store there. The school was across the road from the store, when she was 3-4 years old the teacher let her come to school (it was a small one room school) - she had her own desk and books at the school. She learned her alphabet and simple addition and subtraction, which was remarkable for a 3-4 year old. They lived in and ran the store for about 2 years then moved a few miles away to a farm they rented from Mr. Hammer. They sold the store to Carl Sollard and his family. Later they moved to Higbee, Missouri. Pat was sad about that move so her dad bought her a dog and she named him Rover. Rover ended up not being the friendliest creature and that story didn’t have a happy ending. Pat said she wasn’t really a pet person so she wasn’t overly upset about it. From there after about a year they moved to Bogard where a restaurant was for sale. When they lived in Bogard she was cast in the school play as “Little Black Sambo”. She learned all of her lines but decided to run away the evening of the play to keep from playing her part. She hit in the attic of the smoke house. The whole town was searching for her and the play was cancelled. She went back into the cafe and crawled in bed around midnight when she thought the play was probably over and she could no longer hear the searchers calling for her. Her mom found her the next morning and she got the only spankings she ever remembered getting again. She attended the Church of Christ there in Bogard with her mother. Her dad never attended church and usually when fishing during church service. They only lived in Bogard for about a year until her dad discovered a tavern was for rent in Slater. While living in Slater, her parents ran the tavern and they lived in the upstairs. She was only seven around this time. By the time she would graduate high school she would have attended seventeen different schools. They got their first television while living in Slater. It had three channels all coming from Kansas City. She loved the public library and spent many afternoons there. She also saw Peter Pain at the move theatre every night for three days while living in Slater. The next summer they bought the Lyons Farm. It was forty acres and they spent a thousand dollars on it. It had a four room house without electricity and no running water. It had a big barn, a chicken house, and an outhouse. She felt lonely on the farm because she was used to having people around all the time. Her dad worked a lot as there is a lot of work to do on a farm. Soon enough, they were on the move again after her dad sold the tavern and the farm to Short Harris so they moved to Uncle Bob’s farm in Carroll County. While living in Carroll County she was in 4H and loved the sewing and cooking classes. She sewed a scarf, a skirt, and an apron. The house she lived in had some dark stairs and an area underneath that was mostly empty that she explored but found rather boring due to it being so empty. She didn’t know it at the time but the home was a part of the Underground Railroad and slaved moved through there to get to the North and to Canada. She had two dear childhood friends there, twins, Sharon and Shirley Stark - eventually they moved 10 miles and were just down the road from them when they moved to run the Sugartree Store. There was a four room house next to the store so they didn’t have to live inside the store. She helped her dad get the inventory and clean all the shelves to get the store in good repair before they opened it for themselves. While living there she also became good friends with a girl named Charolette Darby. She continued doing the cooking class in 4H. Rent was $35 a month for the Sugartree Store and her dad couldn’t afford to keep it open at that price so they auctioned everything they couldn’t fit into their Ford car and small trailer and moved again. She was in sixth grade at that time and they moved to Kansas City. When they moved to Kansas City they planned on living near her Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob (Chambers). However, once they got there and looked through the paper they realized they couldn’t afford rent and utilities in Kansas City. So, they moved into the upstairs of Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob’s house. Soon after they moved into a former hay loft in a barn that had three rooms but didn’t stay long as her dad found a listing for an elderly woman looking for someone to live in her home and help take care of her. The ad called for “no children” but her dad got an interview anyway and she was 12 at the time and grown up for her age so they allowed her to move it. They moved into the front part of Mrs. Williams house. That year she went to elementary school at Hickman Mills. That year an F5 tornado hit Kansas City and killed three people in Missouri, six people in Kansas and injured over five hundred. The school was missed by only a few blocks. She loved living with Mrs. Williams and read many books in a maple tree outside of the front window of the house. She also lived near her cousin Bobby whom she was very close with, even into adulthood. After that summer they moved to the Morning Sun Resort located on Old Lake Road 8 South- south of Gravois Mills. While she lived there the school bus driver would stop and let them plan on the “elephant rocks’ on the way home from school. She loved living there and playing in the water of the Lake of the Ozarks. She loved water skiing. It was around this time they sent around a large boat to spray for mosquitos. They were signs posted all around the resort saying to stay out of the water for a certain amount of time after the boat went by. She paid no attention to the signs and in August started to lose all of her energy. By September she couldn’t walk so they went to Carrollton to see what was wrong. Her health kept declining without answers so they moved to Raytown where she was hospitalized - the cause was thought to have been due to DDT poisoning. She was in 8th grade. A Kansas City teacher came and taught her school lessons in the hospital so she didn’t fail the 8th grade. Once she was improved in her health they moved into a house in Kansas City across from her Aunty Mary and Uncle Roy. Eventually, they moved back to help care for Mrs. Williams. She went back to reading books in the tree. Eventually, Mrs. Williams passed away so they moved back to Raytown and lived in Aunt Bess’s old house. She started high school in Raytown. She was close to her cousin Bobby again, which brought her much joy. She was in glee club in high school and never missed a football game.