Patsy K. Mooberry

Willa Cather said, "Where there is great love, there are always miracles." that was never truer than it was in the summer of 1948 when a gawky nine year-old little boy and a beautiful nine year-old little girl met in the fourth grade and fell in love. They were secretly married in the sixth grade. He gave her a cigar-band wedding ring and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Although they parted at eighteen and submerged into their separate lives, each carried with them the embers of that long-ago love deep in the secret places of their hearts. And they kept them there for more than fifty years until they found one another again in 2001. That beautiful little girl grew into a strong, stubborn joyful woman who welcomed love and all that life had to offer with open arms. Her name was Patsy K. Mooberry and she died from cancer early last Sunday morning. She was 79 years and six days old. Janice, her daughter, was there by her side. He was there too, her now-husband Bill, just as he had been for the last fifteen years of their miraculous life together. After bouncing from California to Maine and back a couple of times, Patsy's life became a bit more stable when she returned to that little village where she had grown up. There, she spent the next 30 years as the manager of the Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria where hundreds of friends cherish her memory. In Kingsport, she quickly came to love the town and the people in it. She was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church where she will be sorely missed. Always eager to be helpful, she volunteered for service at the Holston Valley Medical Service and spent years volunteering in the gift shop and at the information desk where her smiling presence helped calm anxious, worried people quickly connect with their loved ones. Patsy had an unquenchable wanderlust. She was never happier than seeing new places, both here and abroad, on the arm of her husband. It was while preparing for a long-anticipated trip to Germany and England to visit family and friends, that she fell ill and discovered the presence of the virulent cancer which struck her down a mere six months later.Patsy's immediate family consists of her parents, Melvin and Garnet Smith Mauerman (now deceased). Her husband William Mooberry of Kingsport. She has two children. Janice Kohal who, along with her husband Bill, of Morton, Illinois, gave Patsy three grandchildren. Son Michael Thibedeau has two children. He and his wife Candy live in Las Vegas. Sister Sandra and husband Stanley Johnson, live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They have four daughters.At her request, there will be no formal funeral activities. Burial will be at the Mountain Home National Cemetery in Mountain Home, Tennessee. Memorial contributions to Patsy's memory may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 100 W. Church Circle, Kingsport, Tennessee 37660.The care of Patsy and her family has been entrusted to the staff of Oak Hill Funeral and Cremation Services.Read Obituary