Pat Vinton, 88, passed away August 11, 2022, at Linden Court Nursing Home in North Platte.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, at 10 AM (MST) at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mullen with Father Matthew Nash officiating. Burial will be in the Cedarview Cemetery at Mullen. A rosary service will be held on Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM at the church. A visitation will be held on Tuesday 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mullen. Govier Brothers Mortuary/Mullen Funeral Home. govierbrothers.com .
Patricia Louise Vinton was born February 2, 1934, in Hyannis, Nebraska to Willard and Frances (Motl) Vinton. The oldest of five children, Pat grew up on the family ranch south of Whitman. Like many Sandhillers born during early ranch establishment, she and her siblings worked long days with their parents harvesting and feeding hay with draft horses, caring for cattle, tending enormous gardens, milking cows, raising chickens, and building and fixing fence. They lived in a small, primitive house until Pat was 15, when she helped dig out the basement for the new house using horses, or often, just a shovel. The children attended primary school on horseback two miles down the valley. Pat went on to high school at St. Agnes Academy in Alliance where she boarded during the school year. She earned her teaching certificate from Chadron State College, and commenced her career of over four decades of teaching in various rural schools from Tryon to Bingham. “Miss Vinton” or “Miss Pat,” as she was fondly known, was very strict, but also generous and kind, with unwavering dedication to her students.
During the summers, she helped mow and put up hay on the home ranch using a dump rake. Her attention to not leaving any scatterings behind, ever, set the bar impossibly high for anyone who would dare substitute for her in the hayfield. Pat also spent many summers haying for Leonard Boyer, whom she held in the highest regard. Another of her talents was spinal adjustments, which she learned at a school in New Mexico in the sixties and provided for many grateful patients over the years. Her generosity extended to providing her family with eggs, cookies, mini loaves of poppy seed bread, fudge, canned tomatoes and pickles; and later, smuggling the snacks and drinks from the assisted living facility out to her visitors. Pat loved to give things to people but loathed receiving gifts, she refused to use the dishwasher, she secretly loved to dance, she took great care of her car, and she loved Chinese food and the Lawrence Welk show. She was not afraid to tell a person what she thought, she was fiercely independent, and strong as an ox. The most important thing to her was her Catholic faith, so she said her prayers and rosary daily and never missed mass.
Pat is survived by her sister Rosalie (John) Jarboe of Waco, TX; her brother Bill (Eithe) Vinton of Mullen; brother-in-law Dan Sahli of Chicago; and numerous nieces and nephews in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Scotland, and England. She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters Geri Haire and Mary Sahli; her brother-in-law Jon Haire; and her niece Karen Haire.
In lieu of flowers (truly, she would be annoyed with flowers), memorials are suggested to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mullen.
