Patsy Ruth Corley
COLUMBIA — Patsy Ruth Corley of Columbia died Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011. She was 76.
She was born Feb. 4, 1935, in Columbia, to James K. and Effie Jeanette (Jacobs) Bozarth. She graduated from Hickman High School in 1953.
She and John Corley were married on June 13, 1954, and had two children, Karen and John David. Her husband’s service in the U.S. Air Force led Mrs. Corley to travel with him throughout the country for 20 years. After her husband retired in 1974, they moved back to Columbia to be near family. Mrs. Corley made her profession of faith in Christ in 1968 in Fort Worth, Texas. She was a member of Parkade Baptist Church in Columbia.
Mrs. Corley’s cooking brought her family together, daughter-in-law Melissa Corley said.
“Every time we had a cooking question we called ‘Grammy,’” she said.
At Christmas, Mrs. Corley would gather her children and grandchildren to bake her grandmother’s famous sugar cookie recipe and paint the cookies with icing, her son, John David Corley, said. That tradition continued for more than 20 years.
When her granddaughters lived in Germany, Mrs. Corley would send them special gifts, including stained-glass heart cookies on Valentine's Day.
When her daughter Karen's spouse died in 1986, Mrs. Corley became more like a sister than a mother to her, John David Corley said.
When John David Corley and his wife moved to Monterey, Calif., Mrs. Corley and her husband moved with them for six months to take care of their granddaughters while their parents attended language school.
Mrs. Corley is survived by her husband, John Corley, of Columbia; a daughter, Karen Corley Minor, of Columbia; a son, John David Corley and wife, Melissa Annette, of Niceville, Fla.; sisters, Hilda Marie Moore and husband, Virgil, of Columbia, and Joyce Jimmilee Smith and husband, Dale, of Alexandria, Va.; two grandchildren, Jessica Grace Miller and husband, Joshua, of Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., and Lauren Elizabeth Corley of Niceville, Fla.
Her brother, James Knox Bozarth Jr., and her son-in-law, Mark Edward Minor, died earlier.
Visitation will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Parkade Baptist Church, 2102 N. Garth Ave. Service will be at noon at the same location with burial following at Memorial Park Cemetery, 1217 Business Loop 70 W.
Memorial contributions can be made to Parkade Baptist Church Building Fund, 2102 N. Garth Ave., Columbia, MO 65202, or Wonderland Camp, 18591 Miller Circle, Rocky Mount, MO 65072.
Tributes may be posted online at www.memorialfuneralhomeandcemetery.com.
