Patricia M. Nelson

Nelson, Patricia M. (nee Kranz) age 92, passed away peacefully on November 4, 2022. She was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Pat attended Nativity grade school, Central High and received a scholarship to St. Catherine’s College where she received a degree in English Literature.

For a short time she taught in southern Minnesota and then returned to be a secretary at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, in the engineering department. This was a match made in Heaven, as she had an engineering mind. Pat truly enjoyed this job. Pat embraced computers, and her second bedroom was full of monitors and scanners and printers.

On June 10, 1961 she married William E. Nelson and together they spent many years between St. Paul and various Wisconsin lake properties. Their home was two blocks from St. Thomas College and Pat took courses there for many years. Never lost her love of learning.

Genealogy was a great interest of Pats, and with her cousin Charles Kranz, she traced the Kranz family back many years. She and Bill attended the Hugh family reunion in Kranzburg, So. Dakota. The Murphy and Smith side of the family got equal attention and many many contacts were made.

After Bills death she moved to Dayton, Ohio to be near her sister Berna. This provided to be a great move and while she was at St. Leonard’s cottages, they played Bridge at the Miami Valley Bridge Center each week and they were able to share time together.

Pat moved to a cottage in Otterbein Lebanon, and lived there independently for years until a fall on August 18 left her in the hospital, rehab, and finally, skilled care. On her Health Directive, her first request was to be treated with kindness and respect. This she received at Otterbein, and we are forever grateful for the competent and compassionate staff.

Pat will be missed by her sister, friends and a flock of nieces and nephews for her quiet, dry sense of humor and her ever present purse.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30am Friday November 18th at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Kettering. The family will receive friends from 10:00am until 10:30am. She will be laid to rest in St. Paul where services are still pending. Arrangements by The Westbrock Funeral Home.