Patricia M. Wolski

Age 90, of Columbia Heights, Minnesota​Pat Wolski (known as Patricia only to those who were angry with her) died Saturday, Feb. 27, after having suffered a broken hip just days earlier.​Pat was born July 14, 1930 to William (Bud) and Marie (Steirer) McCune and grew up in Chicago. She was a wonderful student as a child and a voracious reader, who once set herself the goal of reading every book at her local branch of the Chicago Public Library. While she set her sights on becoming a doctor, she abandoned that dream when she married Eugene Wolski, also of Chicago, in 1950. Instead, she focused on being a good mother to her four children: David (born 1953), Nancy (born 1955), Mark (born 1957) and Lisa (born 1967). She taught them to expect to be the best, not to suffer fools gladly, and not to take life too seriously (hence her amazing Dopey Dance).​The family moved to Albia, Iowa in 1973, and Pat eventually became the receptionist at Gene’s optometry firm. The couple—and it must be noted that Pat and Gene were forever a couple—returned to Illinois in 1999. A few years after Gene’s death in 2014, Pat moved to a memory care center in Columbia Heights.​Most of Pat and Gene’s kids had kids, and some of them had kids, and Pat loved and was proud of each and every one of them. Her sisters, Mary Ellen Halpern and Kathy Hiter, also always had a firm place in her heart. But Pat will be remembered most for her love for Gene. Perhaps no two people have loved each other more.​Pat will also be remembered for her forthright and honest manner. You always knew what Pat was thinking. She was proud of her Irish heritage, believed strongly in the Catholic Church, and loved the Chicago Cubs. She loved Christmas.​She loved spoiling her children and grandchildren, and loved Frank Sinatra and Broadway musicals.​Pat was a true individual, and she will be missed.