Patricia Lee (Imeson) Tucker, 86, passed away on Saturday, August 27, 2022 at her home on the ranch in rural Billings County, ND, with family at her bedside. Patricia’s Funeral Service will be at 10 a.m., Friday, September 2, 2022 at the Grassy Butte Seventh Day Adventist Church with Pastor Robert Forbes officiating. Interment will take place at the church cemetery. Visitation will be on Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Ladbury Funeral Service, Dickinson.
Patricia Lee was born on July 1, 1936 in Jackson, WY the second of four children born to Lon and Lenora (Praisewater) Imeson and grew up on the place 14 miles south of Jackson along the Hoback River. Known to family and friends as “Patsy” throughout her childhood, she attended grades 1-12 in the grade school and high school in Jackson. Mom always said that she had the best childhood one could ask for, even with chores to attend to. She and brother Russell, who had the “misfortune” of being close in age to her, spent many happy hours with their individual strings of willow stick horses, riding the “range” and getting into trouble with Grammy, who would then send them in search of willow sticks for a whole other reason! Always full of energy, sometimes too much Grammy claimed, mom participated in baseball, basketball and volleyball in school. Sledding and skiing on the hills around home kept her outdoors in the winter time.
A love for animals, wild and domestic, began along the Hoback River and in the hunting camps that her parents operated in the Jackson area. Mom loved getting to go with Papa Lon and the team of horses to feed hay and pellets to the deer for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in the winter time. At home, the deer would even come feed with their horses, and so of course, there ended up being “pet” deer that mom was sure came back with their young every year.
When she was 16, during her junior year in high school, she spent the first of two summers working in the telephone office in Jackson during the summer. Manning the switchboard, she got to ask “number please” many, many times. Family members are pretty sure that this is when her life long love affair with talking blossomed fully!
After graduating high school at the age of 17, and earning a partial scholarship, the fall of 1954 saw Patsy venture off to Rick’s College in Rexburg, ID, to take general classes. The fall of 1955, found her beginning nurses training at St. Patrick’s in Missoula, MT. What was to be a two year course ended at one year after a training rotation at the State Hospital in Deer Lodge, MT, when she decided nursing was not in her future.
Pat, as she was now known by, followed a friend from nursing school to the Bozeman, MT area in 1956, where strangely enough, she took a job as a nurse’s aid at the Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. A blind date arranged by her roommate Shirley Nelson, introduced her to a guy named Don in late summer of 1956. On April 14, 1957, Pat married Donald W. Tucker at the home of his parents, Carl and Ida Tucker, and became not only a wife, but also a part-time mom to Don’s 3 year old son, Hal Eugene Tucker. A son, Don Duane, was born on August 25, 1958 and daughter, Terri Lee, followed on February 8, 1960.
The family moved to Spokane, WA in 1969, and then moved onto Pullman, WA in 1970. In 1973, they again moved to Walla Walla, WA. During our growing up years mom was always a “stay at home mom”, but only in the sense that she didn’t have a job outside the home. As far as the staying at home part, not so much. Mom was always on the go with the three kids and their activities, be it Scouts, sports, Camp Fire Girls or whatever, mom was always the first to volunteer to provide transportation to all who needed it. This was, of course, long before seatbelt laws were overly strict and you could “fit” more bodies in a station wagon.
The sudden death of her husband in September of 1984, prompted Pat to take a job at the 7-11 Convenience Store in Walla Walla, until moving to Overton, NV to help out her mom who was doing chemo treatments in Las Vegas. After her mom’s passing, Pat decided to stay in Overton, where she once again took a job in a convenience store, this time Walley’s. She worked there until deciding to accept the invitation of Terri to move to the ranch in ND, where she lived and rode herd on the chickens, peafowl, and guinea fowl until the time of her death.
Pat was always a lover of nature in all forms, well except maybe in snow form. She loved to travel and explore, being a frequent passenger with her sister and brother-in-law, Dorothy and Mick Timmons. Mick is pretty sure that having Dorothy and “Pete” together so much in a vehicle is what caused his early hearing loss. Bowling, arrowhead hunting, metal detecting, jigsaw puzzles, sand dollar hunting, rockhounding, reading, taking sunrise and sunset pictures by the 100’s, and of course raising many beautiful flowers that were often gifted to friends and family, as well as being taken to church for the members’ enjoyment.
In December of 2001, “Gram Gram” welcomed her first great-grandchild, Cash, into the world. For the next 12 years, she played football, baseball and basketball with him, only retiring after having both her knees scoped. Given no choice in the matter, Cash was to become a die hard Seattle Seahawks fan. The two of them could be heard for miles around “cheering” for their team.
In 2002, Pat was baptized into the Grassy Butte Seventh Day Adventist Church. She was the Community Service leader for many years, helping to organize and distribute many, many Thanksgiving food boxes. For many years she and Alma, Terry’s mom, did volunteer hair care for the residents at Hilltop Home of Comfort in Killdeer.
Pat is survived by her children, Hal (Becky) Tucker, Chewelah, WA and Terri (Terry) Tachenko, Grassy Butte; grandchildren, Todd Tucker, Missoula, MT, Tracy (Eric) Kneeland, Corbett, OR, Tammy (Chris) Barr, Burk, VA, Amanda Tachenko, Grassy Butte, and Joseph (Gabrielle) Tachenko, Bloomington, MN; great-grandchildren, Adam and Jenna Kneeland, Corbett, OR, Cash Tachenko, Dickinson, Jonah, Bennett and Graham Tachenko, Bloomington, MN; sisters, Harriett Wilson and Dorothy (Mick) Timmons; sisters-in-law, Patricia Packer and Dawn Imeson; numerous cousins, nephews and nieces.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald W. Tucker; son, Don Duane Tucker; parents, Lon and Lenora Imeson; brother, Russell Imeson; in-laws, Carl and Ida Tucker; brothers and sister-in-law, Carl W. Tucker, Jr (Sonny), Earl Packer, Jean and Allen Schmidt, and Jim Wilson.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Grassy Butte SDA Community Service Fund, or the Domestic Violence & Rape Crisis Center (DVRCC) in Dickinson.
