Wilda Jo Smith
July 11, 1940 – June 8, 2024
Wilda Jo Smith, 83, Paola, Kansas passed away Saturday, June 8, 2024, at Overland Park Regional Medical Center as a result of injuries from an automobile accident. Visitation and funeral services were held June 24, at Mullinax Funeral Home, Drexel. Burial will take place in Versailles Cemetery, Versailles, Missouri. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of donor’s choice. Messages of condolence may be left for the family at www.mullinaxfuneralhome.com.
Wilda Jo Smith was born July 11, 1940, to Preston and Verna Ozele Houser in Birch Tree, Missouri. Years later, she and her family moved to central Missouri near Versailles and lake of the Ozarks.
Jo graduated from Morgan County R-II High School in Versailles Missouri in 1958. In 1959 she married Jackie Henson Patterson, who would proceed her in death. Following her husband’s death, she and her son Terry moved to Kansas City, to seek employment. This led to her 33-year career with the United States Postal Service.
In 1968, she married Kenneth E. Smith. In the early 1970’s they would move to State Line Road near Drexel, Missouri. She would remain a member of that community, establishing many valued friendships and business relationships for the remainder of her life.
After her husband’s passing, she continued her career at USPS and became her mother’s caregiver for the remainder of her mother’s life. After 33 years of service, she retired in 2007. She purchased a nearby farm, where she raised cattle for the remainder of her life.
Jo, call her Wilda at your own peril, left us as an amazing, complicated, yet straight forward human being. She was opinionated yet kind and considerate of others, hardworking yet playful. She had a strong will and strong convictions consistent with a “Stubborn German.” (Her self-description.) She treated everyone fairly and expected to be treated as such. She liked many different people and was well liked and respected by many. She will truly be missed among us!
Among her many interests and pursuits, she loved hunting, fishing, quilt shops, her farm and cattle, friends and family and, of course, exploring the weekly mysteries of Aldi’s.
She was proceeded in death by her parents, sister Lucille, valued companion and friend Leonard Oberheide.
She is survived by her son, Terry Patterson, Columbia; niece, Dorothy Gerhart, Mexico; nephew, Don and wife Tina Gerhart, Rolett, TX; nephew, Bob Gerhart, San Diego, CA; cousins, Judy Williamson Titus, Eminence, Gordon Arthur Williamson, Birch Tree, Roy Neal Williamson and wife Jamie, Laurie, Rosemary Houser Daniels and husband Chuck, Versailles; plus too many dear friends in the Drexel and surrounding communities to adequately acknowledge!
Mom, if Edna St. Vincent Millay articulates it better than I, she can’t feel it deeper than I do at this moment.
“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.”
