Pat (Patricia) Sowada, who died suddenly Oct. 2, used to drive every Sunday to Holy Cross Church in her home town North Prairie where she served as organist/pianist and choir director. They will hold a small private, by-invitation but live-streamed mass this week. At a future date there will be a celebration of her life in the Columbia Heights community.
“She was a positive and kind person,” Council Member Connie Buesgens relayed what many said upon hearing of Sowada’s passing. “Always a smile.”
Remembering her active life in Columbia Heights, friend Dolores Strand knew Sowada through Sister Cities activities. “She was a major player, our membership chair over the 30 years we’ve been at it. With over 100 members, that’s a major time commitment. She was so organized.”
They traveled together to Europe and a Sister Cities International conference in Northern Ireland. In Lomianki, Poland, Columbia Heights’ sister city, visiting the police department there, Sowada was the first to speak up about organizing an exchange for the police to visit Columbia Heights. “Any activity, she was involved in the planning, and she loved going to events sponsored by other groups,” Strand said.
A teacher at Highland Elementary School, her family got her vanity license plates for her car, “PAT 13” for the school district.
Strand said Sowada kept active in retirement, knitting and crocheting as well as teaching those skills, substitute teaching and working part time as a clerk at the city’s liquor stores. She helped at the city’s community picnics and sometimes brought her kids and then grandkids to help.
Sowada served on the Columbia Heights library board for 20-some years, at one time serving as president.
At home, Sowada maintained a gorgeous back yard garden. She was a member of a hosta association and had all of the varieties identified with stakes. Catherine Vesley, who now chairs the library board, lives nearby and is one of many who enjoyed tea in the garden with “the most cheerful, interesting person. Open, warm, and always a good word for people. Civic minded, interested in children, and literacy. She’d seen what the lack of literacy can do.”
Pat’s husband Marvin passed away in December 2016. They are survived by a son and three daughters. Marv started a tradition of bringing pumpkins back from the family farm for the local fire department, and would leave some great specimens on friends’ porches. Strand suspects son John played pumpkin fairy these last few years.
Pat Sowada is survived by son John Sowada, daughters Jacqueline (Eric) Mulder, Susalyne (Jason) Truckenbrod, and Sheralyne (Steve) Rechnagel; five grandchildren, Nicholas, Calen, Clarabelle, Colsen, and Madalyne. One of nine children, she is also survived by three sisters Kathleen Trettel, Beatrice Manka, and Adelaide Trettel, and two brothers, Benedict Trettel, and Aloysius Trettel.
Below:Pat Sowada, right, flashed her famous smile at the Columbia Heights Library’s 90-year celebration holding a vintage ad touting the versatility of the Dodge station wagon. The headline reads “Glamour Girl and Chore Boy, Too.” Dave Larson at left. (Photo by Margo Ashmore)
