Mona Patricia (Pat) Edmundson
March 22, 1940 – May 10, 2023
Pat Edmundson passed away on May 10, 2023, surrounded by family at his winter home in Apache Junction, Arizona, after a long and valiant battle with cancer.
Pat was handed over to Rocky and Lou Dudley by Dr. Shadwell of Aztec, New Mexico, and joined his younger brother Kermit and half-brother Carlton Allen.
When she was 5, the family of five packed into a Model A coupe with her father’s saddle strapped to the side and moved to Raton, New Mexico, where she attended school for the first nine years. In 1955 her family moved to Ashland, Oregon, where she graduated from high school. She spent the summer working in the wardrobe department of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her family then moved to Burns, Oregon in 1956 and Pat graduated from Burns High School in 1958.
She and Gary Cronin married in 1959 and had a daughter, Marty, in 1960. In 1965 her son Scott was born and her family grew again. Soon after, they moved to Klamath Falls, where Gary attended Oregon Institute of Technology and Pat completed on-the-job training and worked as a dental assistant and dental technician to support her family.
In 1974 Harney County was formed and the family moved to the Catlow Valley, where Gary worked at the Rock Creek Ranch and Pat worked at the Frenchglen store. Although happy to be out of town, his stay in Rock Creek was short-lived and Pat returned to Burns, where he worked as a grader in the molding plant of the Edward Hines Lumber Company.
In 1976, Pat and Gary purchased the Drewsey Tavern and Cafe, which they ran until their divorce in 1978.
On May 13, 1980, Pat married the love of her life, Richard Edmundson. She and her son Scott joined Richard and his children, Sheila and Sean, at Drussy’s ranch.
Pat was deeply involved in the Drusey community. She was a first responder and she loved helping out with school plays and activities while her children and her grandchildren were in attendance. Many of the children in her area called her “Mom” or “Grandma Pat”.
Pat and Richard made a great team and worked tirelessly together on the ranch. She worked in the hayfields, tended the buckaroo, fed the branding crew, fed the cows, pulled and treated the calves, all while keeping the house clean and tidy. When Pat sold his saddle in 2008, Richard thought it was time to sell the ranch and retire. After many years of feeding cows and calving in the winter, they bought a home in Apache Junction, where they spent the winter, returning to Drewsey each summer.
Pat has a husband of 43 years, half-sister Nedra Dean from Prineville, brother Kermit Lee Dudley from Glennallen, Alaska, daughter Marty Cronin from Princeton, and son Scott Cronin from Drewsey, Arizona. He is survived by a stepdaughter, Sheila Edmundson, and a stepson, Sean Edmundson, of Phoenix, WA. Ontario has her seven grandchildren and her three great-grandchildren.
A life potluck celebration will be held on June 17 at noon at Drewsey Community Hall, followed by a graveside service at Drewsey Cemetery. Our mother loved flowers, so they were very welcome at the celebration.
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