Invite friends and family to read the obituary and add memories.
We'll notify you when service details or new memories are added.
You're now following this obituary
We'll email you when there are updates.
Please select what you would like included for printing:
Patricia Mae
Corsi
March 12, 1940 – July 16, 2024
Patricia Mae Corsi was born in Lusk, WY on March 12,1940 to Ellen (O'Shea) Pearson and Oliver James Pearson. She died on July 16, 2024, in Afton, Wyoming. She was the youngest of three girls (Rosemary, Betty, and Patricia) who were approximately two years apart each in age. Patricia lived on the ranch in Lusk in her early years.
After a few years, the family moved very briefly to the Gillette, Wyoming area. She remembered being a young girl in Gillette when Gillette had one dirt street with the schoolhouse on one end of town and a soda shop with ice cream on the other end of town. Sometimes, on a hot day, if they had money, she and one or both of her sisters would walk from the schoolhouse to the ice cream store for $.05 ice cream cones.
When she was about four, they moved to the Biddle, Montana area where her grandparents, Johnny and Mary O'Shea had purchased a ten or so section ranch with approximately 1000 head of sheep. As a young girl, she and her sisters rode horses three miles into school at Baking Powder regardless of the weather. In those days, the girls all wore dresses and skirts. She would often tell stories of riding three miles from the ranch to school in a dress at -30 degrees and having three gates to dismount for and open and close between the ranch and school. Patricia had a mare when she was in elementary school that she was very fond of that was a granddaughter to Sea Biscuit. At other times, they rode on a horse drawn wooden cart that had rubber wheels that their father had made for them. Her older sister, Rosemary, would harness one of their horses to the cart in the morning and then drive the three girls to school.
Her Dad held various jobs in the areas they lived in from working on ranches to working on oil rigs. The family raised their own beef, kept a milk cow, and raised a large garden for vegetables that they would can for the winter. They ate a lot of wild game, and she would often say they ate so much antelope when she was growing up, she never wanted to eat it again. However, she did enjoy elk, buffalo, and deer a lot in her later years.
One Christmas each of the three sisters received a bicycle and they rode their bicycles all over the ranch. The ranch was sold somewhere around the time she was in the eighth grade, and they moved to the Miles City area. Patricia graduated from Custer County High School in 1958. She was always very good with her money and often helped her parents and others with financial challenges. When her grandparents sold the ranch, her grandmother gave each of the girls a significant sum of money to help them get started. Patricia used a portion of hers to attend Spokane Business College in Spokane, Washington and to buy a new car. She attended two years of business school before returning to Miles City where she went to work as a Title Clerk for Love Motor.
Soon after returning to Miles City, she met ElRay Corsi. He had been a U.S. Marine and was working as a truck driver for Garrett Freight Lines. On December 23, 1963, they married in a small ceremony in the living room of an LDS Bishop's home in Sheridan, Wyoming. She and ElRay had their first child, Steven, the following year in Miles City, Montana and had their second child, Shawna, in Billings, Montana in late 1969.
She and ELRay lived briefly in Idaho Falls, Idaho between the birth of their two children before returning back to the Billings, Montana area. Her oldest sister, Rosemary, lived in Miles City, Montana about 145 miles away with her family and her middle sister, Betty, lived in Fromberg, Montana about 45 miles away. Truly, many of her favorite memories were going to see her sisters and their families and she would talk about them and their children frequently. Nearly all holidays, regardless of the weather or icy roads, were spent at one of the sister's homes.
In 1985, she, ElRay, and Shawna moved to Riverside, California. This was their second time living in California, the first being a brief time in 1964 in San Mateo near ElRay's two sisters and his mother and father. They lived in Riverside and then Colton, California until moving to Star Valley, Wyoming in 2005 where ElRay was born and raised. By this time, she and ElRay were retired and ElRay's older sister, Carleya, and her husband, Darald, had a summer home in the Valley. The four of them would play cards nearly every day and Mom enjoyed this time immensely. She was always looking for a new card game to add to their repertoire. After a few years of being retired, she went back to work part time as a lunch lady at the Star Valley High School. She really enjoyed her years as a lunch lady and would often talk fondly about the kids and staff that she was able to help in some way.
Throughout her life, she worked for various auto dealers in Miles City, Montana, San Mateo, California, Billings, Montana, Redlands, California, and Fontana, California. She was a hard worker and never complained about the work that had to be done. When ElRay quit driving over the road and began working road construction on local crews, she would get up with him about 4:00 AM., cook breakfast, make him a lunch, send him off to work, get the kids off to school, go to her full time job, and then come home to cook dinner, wash clothes, get kids bathed and in bed, and then finally get to bed herself. She was never one to stay in bed late until after she retired when she began to enjoy her sleep more.
Patricia and ElRay had two grandchildren, Cambria and Steven, from Steven (Marla) and two grandchildren, Kortni and Kayla, from Shawna (Gabriel). From Kortni she was blessed to have three great grandchildren, Declan, Jaxten, and Mason.
She was passionate about her children and grandchildren and always loved spending time with them. One of her favorite things was listening to the kids laugh or doing or saying something to make them laugh. She loved her family and may well have been most pleased when feeding and caring for any one of them. She liked sharing recipes with family and friends and had an amazing ability to make a delicious meal out of almost nothing. She loved company and going to visit people, was known for her potato salad, loved playing any kind of competitive card games, attending family reunions, going out to eat (especially Mexican food), was a big Tom Selleck fan, and liked anything having to do with cowboys. She loved attending rodeos and cheering for the local cowboys and cowgirls. Although she was Catholic in her early years, she later converted to the LDS faith and actively enjoyed working as a visiting sister in her wards.
Patricia is preceded in death by both her parents, her husband, ElRay, her sister, Betty, and both of her brothers-in-law. She is survived by her remaining sister, Rosemary, her son, Steven (Marla), her daughter, Shawna (Gabriel), her grandchildren Kortni, Cambria, Kayla, and Steven, three great grandchildren, and several nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews.
She died peacefully in the Star Valley Care Center in Afton, Wyoming. Her memorial will be Saturday, August 31, 2024, at the LDS church, 165 E. 5th Ave, in Afton, Wyoming, at 10:00 A.M. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that any donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association at https://www.alz.org/research or the Star Valley Search and Rescue (SVAR).
Visits: 0
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors