Our beloved mother, grandmother and dear friend, Priscilla Suzanne Vyhnanek Scherschel, affectionately know to all as “Pat,” passed peacefully October 17, 2024 at her home in Helper.
She was born November 30, 1933 on Thanksgiving Day in Oak Park, Illinois. She was the youngest of three children to Eugene James and Anna Nedved Vyhnanek. She was christened in a gown given to her by Al Capone.
Pat was raised and educated in Illinois and graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School in Riverside. After graduation, she worked for one year at Western Electric making phones for AT&T. She later pursued a career in nursing, and graduated from The Oak Park Hospital School of Nursing in 1956, where she would later work as a Registered Nurse.
While in Illinois, she met the most intelligent man, Wayne D. Scherschel. They married on September 14, 1956 in Brookfield, IL and she spent the next 22 years as an army wife. They were stationed in Germany for two years where their daughter Cynthia and son Kenneth were born. Wayne’s military duties took their young family all across the world including Boston, El Paso, and South Korea where Pat volunteered at the local university hospital in the O.R.
After their overseas assignments, the family returned back to El Paso, and eventually Corpus Christi, where Wayne took a job with NASA tracking Skylab. While in Texas, Pat worked in numerous Operating Rooms at many different hospitals. The family eventually made their home in El Paso where they lived until 1984.
Pat and Wayne loved traveling and spent nearly eight years journeying across America in their Airstream trailer. She especially enjoyed her time traveling in Washington D.C. seeing all the sights. After her retirement from the medical field, Pat worked on and off for several years at the US Forest Service Offices. She would spend the summers working the visitor center at Flaming Gorge, UT and the winter months at the visitor center in Ocala, FL.
Pat is survived by a daughter, Cynde (De) Hunter of Helper, UT; son, Ken Scherschel and Sandy Pettipiece of Roundrock, TX; four grandchildren, Sherry A. Kilfoyle, Alexandar M. Kelley, Samantha M. Scherschel and Timothy S. Scherschel; three great-grandchildren, Zoey, Logan and Evelyn.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Wayne Scherschel; sister, Yvonne; and a brother, Eugene.
Memorial service, Friday, October 25, 2024, 11:00 a.m., Ascension St. Matthew’s Church (522 Homestead Blvd.) in Price where the family will receive friends one half hour prior to the service. Arrangements entrusted to Mitchell Funeral Home of Price and Huntington where friends are always welcome daily and may share memories of Pat online at www.mitchellfuneralhome.net