Funeral services for Pat Milstead, age 92, of Brownwood, will be held at 10:00 AM, Friday, July 14, 2023, at the Austin Avenue Church of Christ. The family will receive attendees following the service. Private family burial in Eastlawn Memorial Park is under the direction of Heartland Funeral Home.
Pat passed from this life on Monday, July 10, 2023, surrounded by her family.
Patsy Arlene Fleming was born on June 6, 1931, in Brownwood, to Lola Lile Earnest and Carl Earnest. She graduated from Brownwood High School in 1949 where she was voted High School Sweetheart and went on to attend Abilene Christian College. Pat married Jim Milstead on September 15, 1951, at the Austin Avenue Church of Christ. Jim’s profession took them all over the country. They moved from Sweetwater, Texas to New Orleans to Downer’s Grove, Illinois to Nashville and back to Downer’s Grove, then to Houston and ultimately retiring back to Brownwood. They were members of the Austin Avenue Church of Christ, where her grandparents were charter members. Pat was a member and long-time teacher of the ladies Bible class in each of the locations where she lived. Even when homebound, she and her daughter, Shari, would take communion She loved worshiping God with her brothers and sisters at Austin Avenue every week.
Pat worked as a fitness instructor for the YMCA and as a sales representative for Dreamsicles and Root Candle Company. She also spent many hours volunteering and her contribution was recognized by the Nashville Central State Psychiatric Hospital. The Baytown Church of Christ also gave her recognition for her outstanding leadership at their Women’s Symposium. Pat enjoyed her Brownwood Lions, family, playing bridge, animals, reading the Bible, tending to her plants, and teaching and spreading the word of God.
Pat lived through the Great Depression, the attack on Pearl Harbor, World War II, the Korean War, debut of Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry and Woody Woodpecker, the invention of the Polaroid Camera, television and later color television, the election and the assassination of John F. Kennedy and seventeen presidents in her lifetime. The events go on and on, but through it all she never steered away or lost her faith in God.
Pat is survived by a daughter, Shari Moses and her husband Dave Folowell; four grandchildren, Kate (Milstead) Vein and her husband Mike, Grant Milstead and his wife Laura, Patti (Moses) Hartman and her husband Caleb, Mary Moses and seven great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and son, Rusty Milstead.
The family requests that memorials be made in Pat’s memory to Cherokee Home for Children, PO Box 295, Cherokee, Texas, 76832.
Condolences, memories, and tributes can be offered to the Milstead family at heartlandfuneralhome.com
