Last Saturday, a celebration marked the birthday of a special local lady. Ninety years ago, on Aug. 14, 1931, Patricia, the first of seven children, was born to Leo and Mildred Orcutt near Perry on an oil lease her grandfather worked. While thinking back on her birth, she chuckled lightly, saying “Mama was feeling poorly, so she went to her daddy’s. I guess she wanted her daddy, so they went out to his place. After a while, I was born in a green shack on that lease.” Last Saturday, her family and friends held a small gathering to celebrate her.
Although Pat spent part of her childhood in Bristow, she moved around throughout her life. As an 11 year old, she moved to Kentucky, where she met and later married Harlan Pleasant in 1950. In the late ’50s, they moved to Indiana.
Harlan worked for the United States Postal Service (USPS), and they began their family in 1963 with the birth of their son, Steve. Unfortunately, Harlan was injured on the job and left unable to continuing working. In 1966, they moved back to Bristow, and Pat has lived here (almost entirely on the same property) since, working and serving the community in multiple capacities.
In the years following their move back to Bristow, Pat worked hard. It can be difficult to imagine a more ambitious and hardworking mother and wife once you learn how much she did. For instance, she delivered newspapers for the Tulsa Tribune, later deciding to bid and contract not only with the Tulsa Tribune but with the Tulsa World and USPS as well. She and Harlan started their own company, Green Country Haulers, which bid and won those contracts.
She served as a distributor for the Tulsa Tribune and Tulsa World, covering for local paper boys when needed. Her contract with the USPS led her from distributing and delivering papers to picking up and hauling the mail from Davenport to Tulsa as well. Her route was 400 miles per day. Even so, she continued working on new ventures.
In addition to distributing the papers and hauling the mail, Pat took on new roles, sometimes trading out one of the older roles. One of those additional endeavors included becoming an agent for a local preferred risk insurance company. Around a decade later, she studied diligently to become a real estate agent, working as an associate broker for Tresa Lynch Real Estate. (Full disclosure: Tresa is my grandmother and how, as a small child, I first met Pat, which is one reason I know she is a special lady.) Pat has she is a special lady.) Pat has worked her hardest for as long as she has lived. Even in the ‘90s, Pat took a route selling frozen foods before going on to work for Walmart.
As a Walmart employee, she worked in the shoe and jewelry departments as well as being a greeter. It proved nearly impossible for entrants to scowl when she greeted them because Pat can also be a little bit ornery. No one got by her wearing a scowl or frown without a fun attempt to change that emotion and expression. She often succeeded.
Being ornery, one might imagine some of the stories she might share if willing. For instance, I only mentioned “Remember the time the mouse…” before she cut off my story with a fun “Hey, now!” and a sideways shot of her eyes. She reminds me of my grandmother with that streak of orneriness, but what is life without a little fun? They both shared that. Lottie Gemmill was another of her longtime Bristow friends.
Though her husband Harlan and siblings could not be at her birthday celebration Saturday, she had plenty of friends and family in attendance: her son Steve of Oregon; her sister Betty’s daughters Jackie Sue Swinea of Depew and Cindy Morton of Bristow; her sister Lola’s son Jesse James with wife Linda of Drumright and her daughters Bobbie Sue Cantrell with husband Ben and son Gabriel of Bristow and Molly Jo James of Bristow; her sister Jeannie’s sons David Lee Poulter with wife Roni Johnson of Jennings and Mike Poulter of Jennings; and her dear friend Charles King of Bristow. Although I could not stay for her birthday celebration, I had to stop by, give her a birthday kiss and hug, and meet her family.
Pat provides the wonderful kind of ornery fun and ambition from which any of us could benefit in the stress of today’s world. After being ambitious, hardworking, and fun-loving for 90 years, anyone deserves a party. Please build it be a Pleasant celebration by thanking Pat for her contributions and wishing her many more happy birthdays when you see her.