Patricia Barton Traub

Patricia Traub of Catawba Island died May 3, 2022. She was born in 1925 in Detroit in a hospital located within a hotel to June Day (Notley) and Gerald Moran Barton. Pat lived a surprisingly long life considering generally accepted knowledge on healthy living. She was avowedly against exercising, especially if she felt someone was trying to lure her into it. She claimed that at her high school, Libbey in Toledo, a girl could get out of taking phys-ed by failing the physical, so that once a year she would run up and down the stairs before her physical and get deferred for having a heart rate too fast. She would not walk, or eat certain foods, if such were declared to be “good for you,” although she would happily do so if it was just a matter of course during the day. In spite of her resolve not to exercise, into her 90’s she could get down and back up from the floor to cut fabric, play solitaire, or pet a cat. She was not too interested in food or eating, and it could be that that counterbalanced her aversion to the helpful advice of others. Traub family gratefully thanks all of her caregivers, pharmacists, nurses, medical staff and doctors and the miracle of medicine for helping her blithely carry on all these years. A bit of that same contrary streak showed up during her high school in the WWII era. During that period a student, presumed but not specified to be a boy, could get an early admission to college, perhaps due to the enrollment drop of young men which was driven by the war pressures. She filled out an application for early enrollment stating her first name as Pat, which was typically a boy’s name in that era. She got accepted to Toledo University and never completed the final semester at Libbey. She studied at three universities before she achieved her Bachelor’s degree in 1970 at BGSU, so had to explain at several places and times that she did not have a high school diploma. (She bragged that her college graduating class was very “cool.”) With her degree she started a career in teaching – primarily third grade at Catawba School. She was amused that after decades of pleading that she could not add or multiply reliably, she took a teaching position where she could sympathize with all the struggling students she led. Pat had an adult-to-adult style of talking and had quite a fan club of former students in her old age. In spite of her perceived weakness in arithmetics, she yearly worked out the income taxes for the family with a strong reliance on double-checking and silent cooperation from the rest of the family. Electric calculators were a gift from heaven. One year she gathered up the necessary tax prep materials and took them to the Ida Rupp Library to have the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance volunteers help her prepare the return. They found she understood the ins and outs quite well and recruited her to prepare taxes for the next season. She enjoyed the tax group companionship because it was a little on the technical side and not too sissy. She happily related that when they stepped out to get lunch, her colleagues commented on what a fast walker she was (also called by her grandchildren, “Grandma’s mall-walk”). She volunteered with the tax preparers for at least ten years. Pat was an expert seamstress and went way beyond matching the plaids. She made bound buttonholes, rolled hems, and jackets with knitted sleeves or collars, outfitting all her children nicely for school. She leaves us with her first pin cushion, two squares of wool fabric stitched together and stuffed with raw wool, which she threw together under threat of flunking her first sewing class at Bowling Green. In 1946 she married John Traub with the notion that he was an open-minded world traveller, not considering that being in the Navy in WWII was a big factor in that choice of activities. After raising all her children, she eventually did get to several countries: Mexico - where she was a getaway driver from a knife fight in Mexico City; Iceland - where in the famous Reykjavík church, Hallgrímskirkja she took the time to reteach her eldest daughter, Noma, how to correctly tie one’s shoes; Prague, Czech Republic - where she inspired the guard at Staré město to learn to say, "You have to go around," in English; and Big Island, Bay of Quinte, Ontario - where she visited her father's birthplace. She enjoyed a long married life with John Jerry Traub, who died in 2005, and they had seven children: Noma “Jean” Petroff (Stephen), Jerry Traub, James Traub, Janet Traub (James Toppin), John Tom (died in infancy), Joel Traub deceased (Norma), and June McCall (Michael). Pat had 16 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Now it is clearly true, what she had been saying a long time with her declining hearing: “If you’re talking to ME, you’re wasting your time.” …………. ——————………….. Patricia Barton Traub 1925-2022 OBITUARY Born in Detroit, Michigan, December 3, 1925, Patricia Day Barton, was the daughter of June Day Notley Barton and Gerald Moran Barton. Her family moved to Toledo, Ohio, where she attended Libbey High school. During World War II, she dropped out of high school, to study chemistry so that she could be part of the war effort at Libbey Owens Glass. The family moved to Maumee, Ohio. As a young woman, Patricia manifested a social curiosity about other cultures, seeking out church services in different denominations. In 1946, she married Lieutenant John Jerry Traub, a veteran of the U.S. Navy. Pat later explained her choice, “He was the only one who could keep me completely entertained without spending any money.” The young couple moved to Happy Camp, California, with their first child, where John taught Native Americans on the Klamath River, in the nation’s only log cabin high school. By 1950, they moved back to Ohio, where the remaining children were born. Pat was engaged in the Port Clinton community, teaching Sunday school and taking an active part in the Child’s Study Club. “Our only rule is that you may not discuss children!” she explained humorously. In 1958, she participated in the Mrs. America Pageant competition sponsored by the Ohio Gas Company, and was named “Mrs. Lake Erie District.” By 1960, the family moved to Catawba Island. Pat continued her interest in the community as a Girl Scout leader. And finally, the high school “drop out” went back to school and completed a teaching degree at Bowling Green State University. She relished teaching third grade at the Catawba Elementary School. With six children at home, the Traub residence became a hub of activity and games and crafts. Friends would come by to enjoy an evening of folk singing. John’s grandparents had circled the globe in 1910, and appreciation of international culture was prominent. By the 1970s and 1980s, children began to get married and leave home. Pat was pleased that their residences included such far-flung destinations as Hawaii, Maine, Florida, New Mexico, and even Liberia. That gave her a good excuse to travel, which she loved. But the offspring invariably returned home with their own children, for “summer at the lake.” Thus, a league of loyal grandchildren and even great grandchildren was created. Pat was pleased at the international mixture, bringing in descendants of Mexican, Iranian, Peruvian, Korean, Japanese, and even Greek ancestors into her family circle, and all the great music, great food, and style consciousness they had to contribute. She was proud of their accomplishments – bringing economic self-sufficiency to several thousand Congolese farmers; developing drought resistant lines of legume crops; and more recently, spear-heading efforts to bring economic relief to Orlando residents, whose livelihoods were devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic. For their part, the grandchildren and great grandchildren idolized their grandmother. If they perceived that their own parents seemed to be falling short of the “Pat Traub” standard of self-sufficiency and resourcefulness, they were quick to admonish them, “Oh, that’s not how Grandma Traub would do it!” To them, Grandma Traub had an almost endless variety of talents, sewing, embroidery, refinishing, reupholstery, painting, costume making, folk singing, teaching. For a girl, the rite of passage to womanhood was to refinish a table or reupholster a chair. Only one skill was lacking. Admittedly, that was cooking. But, what was the need, with sons and daughters, sons- and daughters-in-law, and grandchildren who were expert in everything from American to Iranian to Korean to Indian cooking? But, even here, there was an exception. The great treat from a “summer at the lake” was to bring home some Catawba peaches and a loaf of Grandma Traub’s homemade bread.