Patsy White

Patsy Ruth White, 80, died Monday, November 9, 2015, at Joplin, MO. A funeral service was held Friday, November 13, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. at the Axtell Methodist Church. Burial was in Rosehill Cemetery, Axtell. Patsy was born October 27, 1935 in Kansas City, MO, to Orben and Naomi (Collyer) Dorrell. She was the greatly beloved wife of Ron White, mother of Chris and Rusty, grandmother of five and great grandmother of five more. She was the beloved aunt of her brother’s extended family and the adopted mother of many, many of the less fortunate of our world. She was the second and last child of Orben and Naomi and except for a short stint as a glamor girl starlet, doing commercials in early and mid-1950’s in Hollywood and living with family in the Los Angeles area, she lived most all of her early life in and around the Kansas City area. Patsy was a person of uncommon depth of love, compassion, and tenderness for others. She had little child memories of the depression hardships, but carried very vivid memories of the WWII years all her life. Her beloved older brother fought all the way through the Pacific as a Marine, which filled her with both awe and fear for his safety. Hearing of the deaths of her relatives and her older brother’s friends at Pearl Harbor and in following battles wounded her, as being shipped off to a boarding school so that her parents could work around the clock in war industries. Patsy graduated from Northeast High School and promptly went to work in a variety of occupations. After her salvation experience, she met a young man in the tenor section of the church choir she had joined. In March of 1956 she and Ron White were married. After the births of her sons she went to work in the Marine Corps Finance Center, processing the personal pay files of Marines missing, wounded and killed in Vietnam. This experience deeply affected her and amplified the tender compassion for others that God had already placed within her. After a job related move to the St. Louis area, Patsy joined a stock exchange company. She worked very hard and learned the business so well that she was repeatedly promoted, eventually becoming an extremely effective Limited Partner of Edward Jones. Upon retirement, the moved to Tucson and had a wonderful time living in and exploring the Old West. Always together, they became volunteer Rangers in nearby Saguaro National Park and soon became heavily involved in a ministry to the homeless, “Church on the Street.” Around this time they were ordained as minister of the Gospel and were offered a regular time slot on Tucson Public Television. For years they managed a weekly half hour, then full hour program of preaching the Gospel – always delivered with love. “Mom and Dad White Ministries” became well known around town and they were often stopped in public by people who had watched them and been blessed. Eventually payday does come around though and they began to feel the need to return to the Midwest to be closer to their family as they neared their eternal reward. Spending almost 60 years together, they raised and led their entire family to walk in integrity and righteousness before God, to be filled with the Spirit and to always seek to show forth His heart towards all people. Though suffering in her own body through most of her life, Patsy filled all these who knew her with the knowledge they were loved. She comforted their hearts and healed their wounds and gently pointed them to the Father. Patsy was a Godly and gracious woman and will be desperately missed by all who knew her. Her husband called her a Proverbs 31 wife and her sons rise up and call her “blessed.” Arrangements by the Axtell-Landreth Funeral Home, Axtell, KS. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Patsy White, please visit our flower store.