Patricia Harold

Patricia Joan Harold, 84, died Feb. 5, 2015 in her home in Rockford following complications from a fall and subsequent surgery. “Pat” was born Patricia Joan Keenan, the only child of Charles Keenan and Josephine (Clancy) Keenan, on July 24, 1930 in the old St. Anthony Hospital in Rockford.
Pat moved as a young child to Dubuque, Iowa, where she lost her father to a train accident when she was only 9 years old. Her father’s death left a private wound that never completely healed.
Pat and her mother returned to Rockford and made a home with her mother’s sister and her husband, Rosemary (Clancy) Spiro and Frank Spiro. Pat strongly identified herself as a “North End” kid. Her early life was grounded in her Irish-American Catholic identity and many happy student years at St. Peter’s elementary school (now the Cathedral of St. Peter School) and Muldoon High School, the all-girls school later subsumed into Boylan Catholic High School (from which her son graduated three decades later). Old friends still called her “Pinky,” a nickname she acquired at St. Peter’s when she declared that she hated being called “Red.”
A born storyteller, Pat later regaled her family with stories of 1940s bobby-soxer fun at the old “CYO” (Catholic Youth Organization) which, by her account, served as a real-life malt shop straight from the Archie comic books for Rockford’s Catholic teens. Her talent for engaging just about anyone in conversation, making close friends and recounting tales of the past never left her. She had a keen memory for most of her life, which sometimes annoyed her children and occasionally startled old friends. Pat helped launch her daughter’s journalism career by convening a few St. Peter’s alums to collectively chat about their teen years for a feature story in a now-defunct Rockford city magazine. As an interview subject, she outshone her long-time friends with detailed reminiscences that elicited laughs, groans and several embarrassed yelps.
Pat’s own interest in journalism emerged in her high school years, but as a young woman of her era, she felt her viable career options were more limited. She made up for missing her real job calling by serving as the newsletter editor of just about every volunteer group she joined.
Pat graduated from Clarke College, in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1952, and returned to Rockford to teach second grade at Hallstrom Elementary School. She met her husband-to-be, Dennis Harold, at the wedding of mutual friends. The attraction included their mutual Irish-Catholic roots – although when “Denny,” the son of recent immigrants, first heard her description of the ethnic dancing she had done as a child, he gently explained that she had danced a Scottish jig, not an Irish one. They married on June 29, 1957.
Following the traditional path of young married women of the time, Pat left teaching to raise a family. A major aspect of her new role was to support Denny as his progress up the corporate ladder required moving the family from one Midwestern city to another, for a total of nine moves over 25 years. Her ability to connect with people in new environments helped her children settle into new schools and neighborhoods. Pat’s skill was not fully appreciated by her husband until he retired and discovered that, without a job title, making new friends takes more effort than many realize.
One of Denny’s job transfers brought Pat back to Rockford after a 19-year absence. For months afterward, she got lost on the city’s roads because she refused to consult an up-to-date map of her own hometown
Her return to Rockford prompted Pat to begin volunteering at St. Anthony’s, where her mother and aunt had served as volunteers a generation earlier. She stumbled into a true avocation. For nearly 30 years, the sight of a small, red-haired woman in a pink volunteer coat was a familiar sight at the hospital’s information desk and surgical waiting room.
Pat reveled in her family and friends. In particular, Pat welcomed a daughter-in-law who shared many of her interests and a son-in-law who amused her (and was amused by her in turn). She also enjoyed a large, interlocking network of friends that included old school chums, St. Anthony’s colleagues, fellow Florida snowbirds, and the bridge club “girls.”
Pat was preceded in death by her beloved husband, her parents, and a warm set of Harold/Berg sisters- and brothers-in-law that gave her the sibling group she had longed for as a child. Pat leaves her daughter, Rosemary Harold, and son-in-law Michael Knipe, of Washington, DC; her son, Christopher Harold, and daughter-in-law Pamela Harold, of Rockford; grandchildren Erin Blomquist, Shannon Harold and Kevin Harold and great-granddaughter Emma Blomquist, all of Rockford. She also leaves her cherished nieces Lisa Berg, of St. Paul, MN and Nancy (Berg) Johnson, of Minburn, IA, along with Nancy’s husband Jeff Johnson and their daughters Wynne and Kathryn Johnson.
Visitation will be held Monday, Feb. 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Fitzgerald Funeral Home’s Mulford, Chapel, 1860 South Mulford Road, Rockford, IL. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m. at St. Bridget Catholic Church, 600 Clifford Ave., Loves Park, IL, preceded by a visitation period at the church beginning at 10 a.m. Immediately after the funeral mass, there will be a graveside service at Calvary Cemetery, 8616 West State St., Winnebago, IL, and a luncheon to which all friends of Pat and her family are invited. To express condolences online, please visit www.fitzgeraldfh.com.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Pat’s name to OSF Healthcare Foundation in support of OSF St. Anthony Medical Center. Donations may be made online at osfhealthcarefoundation.org or mailed to OSF Healthcare Foundation, 530 NE Glen Oak Ave., Peoria, IL 61637.