Pat Gridley, 79

Violet Jean (Pat) Gridley, 79, of Mountain Home, died peacefully on Monday July 28, 2003, surrounded by family, at the Elmore Medical nursing home.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, at the First Nazarene Church, 950 N. 7th East St., Mountain Home. Burial will be at 3 p.m. in the Hagerman Cemetery in Hagerman.

She was born April 9, 1924, in Alhambra, Calif., one of four children born to Charles and Sarah McMath. She adored her sweet mother and cherished her relationships with her siblings, her family said.

Pat was a gifted athlete. She loved and enjoyed playing sports her entire life.

After graduating from Garfield High School in California, she had the opportunity to play semi-pro women's softball as a pitcher and first basemen. It wasn't long afterwards that she met Phillip Warren Gridley. They wed in January 1947. They began and settled their lives together in Mountain Home, where they have spent the past 56 years.

They raised three sons Phil Jr., Tim, and Nicholas.

"Our silent hero, Grandma Pat, dedicated her life to her family as a homemaker," her family said. "Her time was spent creating a home full of love, goodness, safety, good food and laughter."

She spent years volunteering in community programs, such as Cub Scouts, and as a member of the women's Auxiliary. In her spare time she loved to golf, bowl, and work in the beautiful flowerbeds that surrounded her home.

"As years went by," her family said, "grandchildren came one by one and became the joy of her life. She spent her later years with her arms wrapped around each grandchild, and her heart and time devoted to loving, laughing, dancing, and caring for them. You could often find her spending her summers and holidays entertaining, cooking, shopping and playing with her grandchildren (offering) her unconditional love, kisses and hugs, late night talks, supporting them in school activities and sports, and for being a great source of strength and goodness to follow."

Pat is survived by: her husband, Phil; three sons, Phil, Jr. and his wife, Joe, Tim and his wife, Linda, and son Nick and his wife Ellana, and 13 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Chuck and Jimmy McMath, and sister Glady McMath.

Memorials may be made to a charity of choice.