By Susan Motander
When I graduated from high school, the first person to congratulate me was Pat Myers, then President of the Board of Education in Monrovia. The first thing I did on the day I turned eighteen was visit Mrs. Myers. She was a Registrar of Voters and she registered me to vote. Within a month Pat had convinced me to become a register myself.
When I started writing for this newspaper, Pat was the field representative for Assemblyman and then State Senator Dick Mountjoy. She was always a source of good information about what was happening both locally and in Sacramento.
I knew she had been the first woman elected to the local school board and its first woman president. I knew she worked tirelessly for the PTA and served on many local committees and boards. I thought I knew the woman and I respected her.
At her funeral last Friday I learned even more and if anything, I respect her even more. She was born on February 3rd, 1927 in Great Bend, Kansas. She graduated from Great Bend High School and went on to the University of Kansas where she played basketball. This Lady Jayhawk earned a degree in journalism and was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
It was while she was in Great Bend, that she met Robert W. Myers who became her husband. Bob died several years ago, but only after 65 years of marriage. They raised their three children here in Monrovia and Pat became active in the local PTAs. It was through her association with PTA and my own parents’ involvement that I first came to known Mrs. Myers. In those days, I was never allowed to address adults by their first names. She remained Mrs. Myers to me for years.
Throughout the years in Monrovia, she remained active serving on several boards and with many committees and organizations, including the Friends of the Library and the hospital guild. At the service on Friday, her son Chuck remembered that because of her volunteer efforts, “My brother and sister and I got tired of TV dinners.”
He joked that one of the reasons his mother had requested cremation was so that no one would know that she had a secret tattoo that read “Monrovia, Gem City of the Foothills.”
Chuck also said that his mother taught him what unconditional love was all about and called her “the biggest fan I ever had.” In remembering her, he also reminded everyone of one of the most important lessons his mother taught him: It is important to listen without lecturing if you want to learn about the ideas of others and to base your opinions of people on what is on the inside, not the outside.
Another major belief of Pat’s was that it was possible to agree to disagree in an agreeable fashion. She was always a lady and she will be missed.
Pat is survived by her three children, Marilyn, Chuck (and his wife Jodie), and Bill (and his wife Vicky) and by her four grandchildren: Cassidy, Julia, Kassandra and Jessica.
