Third wife of Jim Thorpe, one of the world's greatest athletes.
(Full Name: James Francis Thorpe)
In 1950, the nations's press selected Jim Thorpe as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. In 2001, he was named by ABC's Wide World of Sports as "The Athlete of the Century."
On June 2, 1945, at Tijuana, Mexico, Patricia Gladys Askew "of Louisville, Kentucky" became Thorpe's third wife.
Within days of their marriage, he was at sea working on a World War II Merchant Marine cargo ship. After the war ended, Jim returned to Patricia, and she became his business manager working to help him try to earn a living from his fame.
He suffered a fatal heart attack in their modest trailer park home on March 18, 1953. At the time of his death they had been married for almost eight years and were penniless.
Patricia's decision about where and how to bury her husband stirred controversy, which remains active even today so many years after his 1953 death. In fact, as recently as February 2015, a Federal Appeals court ruled that his remains are to stay where Patricia chose to place them.
On Monday, April 6th, 1953, thousands of mourners filed past the great athlete where he lay in state at Malloy and Molloy Mortuary, 1717 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, California. According to newspaper reports, later that week Thorpe, who was part Sac and Fox Indian and part Irish and French, was to have a Native American burial in Shawnee, Oklahoma likely at Garden Grove Cemetery where much of his family is buried. But Patricia began looking into other options, in her mind trying to get the best she could for Jim. She interrupted the traditional Sac and Fox funeral rite in progress, and had him removed to a mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee while she tried to raise a great deal of money for an ambitious monument.
In August, Patricia moved Jim to a mausoleum at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma while she worked to plan a resting place and monument with a state commission tasked by Oklahoma's governor with creating a memorial. But when the governor balked at the high cost of funding the monument, she made a deal instead with two dying Pennsylvania coal mining towns, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, with a plan to use the memory of Jim Thorpe to inspire and revitalize the towns through tourism and sports related industry. They would change the name of their community to the Borough of "Jim Thorpe," provide a marble tomb, a monument, and plan a Hall of Fame museum, an Olympic stadium, a hospital, a heart and cancer clinic, and sporting goods factory bearing the name of Jim Thorpe. The ambitious projects have not happened, but the borough has seen a resurgence as a tourist destination in recent decades.
On February 9, 1954, his body was transferred from Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa to Evergreen Cemetery in East Mauch, Pennsylvania. The news reported he would be moved to his final resting place when a heart and heart clinic had been built there. The clinic never materialized, but Thorpe finally received his final burial in 1957 at the "Jim Thorpe" memorial. Over the years his family has been divided in their wish to have him moved back to Oklahoma. Son John, who since the late 60's led the campaign to bring him home to finish important burial rites, was active in Indian Affairs and served seven years as the tribal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation.
In 2010, Thorpe's son John filed a law suit in Pennsylvania, joined by the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, to bring Thorpe's remains back to Oklahoma to finish his traditional burial, citing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. In April 2013, the Court favorably ruled that the Act did apply; Thorpe's remains should be returned. However, in October 1914, this ruling was overturned by a three-judge panel of a Federal Appeals Court. In December 2014, a petition was made that the Court re-hear the case en banc. But in February 2015, the Appeals court reaffirmed its decision that the body of famed native American athlete Jim Thorpe should remain in the Carbon County borough where he was buried more than 60 years ago. "Thorpe was buried in the Borough by his wife, and she had the legal authority to decide where he would be buried," the decision said.
California Death Records
Name: Patricia G Thorpe
Birth: 23 Dec 1898 at Missouri
Death: 6 Apr 1975 at San Bernardino Co.
Interred: 17 Apr 1975, per cemetery
Widow of famed Jim Thorpe dies
HESPERIA -- Patricia Thorpe, widow of the late All American athlete Jim Thorpe, died Sunday in her Hesperia home after a lengthy illness. She was 76. In recent years, she had been involved in an effort to have her husband's Olympic records restored and his trophies placed in the Smithsonian Institution. She was born in Joplin, Missouei, and she had lived in Hesperia a year. She owned a motel in Lomita and had operated a rest home 12 years. Survivors include two daughters, Stephanie Nishida of San Pedro and Darlene Souza of Benecia. Services were held at the Dudley Mortuary Chapel in Victorville. (San Bernardino County Sun, San Bernardino, California, 8 Apr 1975, page B3)
Full Name
Patricia Gladys Evelyn Woodbury
(The Sedalia Democrat, 19 Mar 1950, p4, Sedalia, Missouri & in numerous other papers across the nation.)
Previous Marriages Include
To Henry Keith Dooley
To Mr. Askew∼Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945, she was with him when he died.
(Full Name: James Francis Thorpe)
In 1950, the nations's press selected Jim Thorpe as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. In 2001, he was named by ABC's Wide World of Sports as "The Athlete of the Century."
On June 2, 1945, at Tijuana, Mexico, Patricia Gladys Askew "of Louisville, Kentucky" became Thorpe's third wife.
Within days of their marriage, he was at sea working on a World War II Merchant Marine cargo ship. After the war ended, Jim returned to Patricia, and she became his business manager working to help him try to earn a living from his fame.
He suffered a fatal heart attack in their modest trailer park home on March 18, 1953. At the time of his death they had been married for almost eight years and were penniless.
Patricia's decision about where and how to bury her husband stirred controversy, which remains active even today so many years after his 1953 death. In fact, as recently as February 2015, a Federal Appeals court ruled that his remains are to stay where Patricia chose to place them.
On Monday, April 6th, 1953, thousands of mourners filed past the great athlete where he lay in state at Malloy and Molloy Mortuary, 1717 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, California. According to newspaper reports, later that week Thorpe, who was part Sac and Fox Indian and part Irish and French, was to have a Native American burial in Shawnee, Oklahoma likely at Garden Grove Cemetery where much of his family is buried. But Patricia began looking into other options, in her mind trying to get the best she could for Jim. She interrupted the traditional Sac and Fox funeral rite in progress, and had him removed to a mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee while she tried to raise a great deal of money for an ambitious monument.
In August, Patricia moved Jim to a mausoleum at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma while she worked to plan a resting place and monument with a state commission tasked by Oklahoma's governor with creating a memorial. But when the governor balked at the high cost of funding the monument, she made a deal instead with two dying Pennsylvania coal mining towns, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, with a plan to use the memory of Jim Thorpe to inspire and revitalize the towns through tourism and sports related industry. They would change the name of their community to the Borough of "Jim Thorpe," provide a marble tomb, a monument, and plan a Hall of Fame museum, an Olympic stadium, a hospital, a heart and cancer clinic, and sporting goods factory bearing the name of Jim Thorpe. The ambitious projects have not happened, but the borough has seen a resurgence as a tourist destination in recent decades.
On February 9, 1954, his body was transferred from Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa to Evergreen Cemetery in East Mauch, Pennsylvania. The news reported he would be moved to his final resting place when a heart and heart clinic had been built there. The clinic never materialized, but Thorpe finally received his final burial in 1957 at the "Jim Thorpe" memorial. Over the years his family has been divided in their wish to have him moved back to Oklahoma. Son John, who since the late 60's led the campaign to bring him home to finish important burial rites, was active in Indian Affairs and served seven years as the tribal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation.
In 2010, Thorpe's son John filed a law suit in Pennsylvania, joined by the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, to bring Thorpe's remains back to Oklahoma to finish his traditional burial, citing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. In April 2013, the Court favorably ruled that the Act did apply; Thorpe's remains should be returned. However, in October 1914, this ruling was overturned by a three-judge panel of a Federal Appeals Court. In December 2014, a petition was made that the Court re-hear the case en banc. But in February 2015, the Appeals court reaffirmed its decision that the body of famed native American athlete Jim Thorpe should remain in the Carbon County borough where he was buried more than 60 years ago. "Thorpe was buried in the Borough by his wife, and she had the legal authority to decide where he would be buried," the decision said.
California Death Records
Name: Patricia G Thorpe
Birth: 23 Dec 1898 at Missouri
Death: 6 Apr 1975 at San Bernardino Co.
Interred: 17 Apr 1975, per cemetery
Widow of famed Jim Thorpe dies
HESPERIA -- Patricia Thorpe, widow of the late All American athlete Jim Thorpe, died Sunday in her Hesperia home after a lengthy illness. She was 76. In recent years, she had been involved in an effort to have her husband's Olympic records restored and his trophies placed in the Smithsonian Institution. She was born in Joplin, Missouei, and she had lived in Hesperia a year. She owned a motel in Lomita and had operated a rest home 12 years. Survivors include two daughters, Stephanie Nishida of San Pedro and Darlene Souza of Benecia. Services were held at the Dudley Mortuary Chapel in Victorville. (San Bernardino County Sun, San Bernardino, California, 8 Apr 1975, page B3)
Full Name
Patricia Gladys Evelyn Woodbury
(The Sedalia Democrat, 19 Mar 1950, p4, Sedalia, Missouri & in numerous other papers across the nation.)
Previous Marriages Include
To Henry Keith Dooley
To Mr. Askew∼Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945, she was with him when he died.
Third wife of Jim Thorpe, one of the world's greatest athletes.
(Full Name: James Francis Thorpe)
In 1950, the nations's press selected Jim Thorpe as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. In 2001, he was named by ABC's Wide World of Sports as "The Athlete of the Century."
On June 2, 1945, at Tijuana, Mexico, Patricia Gladys Askew "of Louisville, Kentucky" became Thorpe's third wife.
Within days of their marriage, he was at sea working on a World War II Merchant Marine cargo ship. After the war ended, Jim returned to Patricia, and she became his business manager working to help him try to earn a living from his fame.
He suffered a fatal heart attack in their modest trailer park home on March 18, 1953. At the time of his death they had been married for almost eight years and were penniless.
Patricia's decision about where and how to bury her husband stirred controversy, which remains active even today so many years after his 1953 death. In fact, as recently as February 2015, a Federal Appeals court ruled that his remains are to stay where Patricia chose to place them.
On Monday, April 6th, 1953, thousands of mourners filed past the great athlete where he lay in state at Malloy and Molloy Mortuary, 1717 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, California. According to newspaper reports, later that week Thorpe, who was part Sac and Fox Indian and part Irish and French, was to have a Native American burial in Shawnee, Oklahoma likely at Garden Grove Cemetery where much of his family is buried. But Patricia began looking into other options, in her mind trying to get the best she could for Jim. She interrupted the traditional Sac and Fox funeral rite in progress, and had him removed to a mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee while she tried to raise a great deal of money for an ambitious monument.
In August, Patricia moved Jim to a mausoleum at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma while she worked to plan a resting place and monument with a state commission tasked by Oklahoma's governor with creating a memorial. But when the governor balked at the high cost of funding the monument, she made a deal instead with two dying Pennsylvania coal mining towns, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, with a plan to use the memory of Jim Thorpe to inspire and revitalize the towns through tourism and sports related industry. They would change the name of their community to the Borough of "Jim Thorpe," provide a marble tomb, a monument, and plan a Hall of Fame museum, an Olympic stadium, a hospital, a heart and cancer clinic, and sporting goods factory bearing the name of Jim Thorpe. The ambitious projects have not happened, but the borough has seen a resurgence as a tourist destination in recent decades.
On February 9, 1954, his body was transferred from Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa to Evergreen Cemetery in East Mauch, Pennsylvania. The news reported he would be moved to his final resting place when a heart and heart clinic had been built there. The clinic never materialized, but Thorpe finally received his final burial in 1957 at the "Jim Thorpe" memorial. Over the years his family has been divided in their wish to have him moved back to Oklahoma. Son John, who since the late 60's led the campaign to bring him home to finish important burial rites, was active in Indian Affairs and served seven years as the tribal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation.
In 2010, Thorpe's son John filed a law suit in Pennsylvania, joined by the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, to bring Thorpe's remains back to Oklahoma to finish his traditional burial, citing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. In April 2013, the Court favorably ruled that the Act did apply; Thorpe's remains should be returned. However, in October 1914, this ruling was overturned by a three-judge panel of a Federal Appeals Court. In December 2014, a petition was made that the Court re-hear the case en banc. But in February 2015, the Appeals court reaffirmed its decision that the body of famed native American athlete Jim Thorpe should remain in the Carbon County borough where he was buried more than 60 years ago. "Thorpe was buried in the Borough by his wife, and she had the legal authority to decide where he would be buried," the decision said.
California Death Records
Name: Patricia G Thorpe
Birth: 23 Dec 1898 at Missouri
Death: 6 Apr 1975 at San Bernardino Co.
Interred: 17 Apr 1975, per cemetery
Widow of famed Jim Thorpe dies
HESPERIA -- Patricia Thorpe, widow of the late All American athlete Jim Thorpe, died Sunday in her Hesperia home after a lengthy illness. She was 76. In recent years, she had been involved in an effort to have her husband's Olympic records restored and his trophies placed in the Smithsonian Institution. She was born in Joplin, Missouei, and she had lived in Hesperia a year. She owned a motel in Lomita and had operated a rest home 12 years. Survivors include two daughters, Stephanie Nishida of San Pedro and Darlene Souza of Benecia. Services were held at the Dudley Mortuary Chapel in Victorville. (San Bernardino County Sun, San Bernardino, California, 8 Apr 1975, page B3)
Full Name
Patricia Gladys Evelyn Woodbury
(The Sedalia Democrat, 19 Mar 1950, p4, Sedalia, Missouri & in numerous other papers across the nation.)
Previous Marriages Include
To Henry Keith Dooley
To Mr. Askew∼Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945, she was with him when he died.
(Full Name: James Francis Thorpe)
In 1950, the nations's press selected Jim Thorpe as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. In 2001, he was named by ABC's Wide World of Sports as "The Athlete of the Century."
On June 2, 1945, at Tijuana, Mexico, Patricia Gladys Askew "of Louisville, Kentucky" became Thorpe's third wife.
Within days of their marriage, he was at sea working on a World War II Merchant Marine cargo ship. After the war ended, Jim returned to Patricia, and she became his business manager working to help him try to earn a living from his fame.
He suffered a fatal heart attack in their modest trailer park home on March 18, 1953. At the time of his death they had been married for almost eight years and were penniless.
Patricia's decision about where and how to bury her husband stirred controversy, which remains active even today so many years after his 1953 death. In fact, as recently as February 2015, a Federal Appeals court ruled that his remains are to stay where Patricia chose to place them.
On Monday, April 6th, 1953, thousands of mourners filed past the great athlete where he lay in state at Malloy and Molloy Mortuary, 1717 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, California. According to newspaper reports, later that week Thorpe, who was part Sac and Fox Indian and part Irish and French, was to have a Native American burial in Shawnee, Oklahoma likely at Garden Grove Cemetery where much of his family is buried. But Patricia began looking into other options, in her mind trying to get the best she could for Jim. She interrupted the traditional Sac and Fox funeral rite in progress, and had him removed to a mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee while she tried to raise a great deal of money for an ambitious monument.
In August, Patricia moved Jim to a mausoleum at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma while she worked to plan a resting place and monument with a state commission tasked by Oklahoma's governor with creating a memorial. But when the governor balked at the high cost of funding the monument, she made a deal instead with two dying Pennsylvania coal mining towns, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, with a plan to use the memory of Jim Thorpe to inspire and revitalize the towns through tourism and sports related industry. They would change the name of their community to the Borough of "Jim Thorpe," provide a marble tomb, a monument, and plan a Hall of Fame museum, an Olympic stadium, a hospital, a heart and cancer clinic, and sporting goods factory bearing the name of Jim Thorpe. The ambitious projects have not happened, but the borough has seen a resurgence as a tourist destination in recent decades.
On February 9, 1954, his body was transferred from Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa to Evergreen Cemetery in East Mauch, Pennsylvania. The news reported he would be moved to his final resting place when a heart and heart clinic had been built there. The clinic never materialized, but Thorpe finally received his final burial in 1957 at the "Jim Thorpe" memorial. Over the years his family has been divided in their wish to have him moved back to Oklahoma. Son John, who since the late 60's led the campaign to bring him home to finish important burial rites, was active in Indian Affairs and served seven years as the tribal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation.
In 2010, Thorpe's son John filed a law suit in Pennsylvania, joined by the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, to bring Thorpe's remains back to Oklahoma to finish his traditional burial, citing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. In April 2013, the Court favorably ruled that the Act did apply; Thorpe's remains should be returned. However, in October 1914, this ruling was overturned by a three-judge panel of a Federal Appeals Court. In December 2014, a petition was made that the Court re-hear the case en banc. But in February 2015, the Appeals court reaffirmed its decision that the body of famed native American athlete Jim Thorpe should remain in the Carbon County borough where he was buried more than 60 years ago. "Thorpe was buried in the Borough by his wife, and she had the legal authority to decide where he would be buried," the decision said.
California Death Records
Name: Patricia G Thorpe
Birth: 23 Dec 1898 at Missouri
Death: 6 Apr 1975 at San Bernardino Co.
Interred: 17 Apr 1975, per cemetery
Widow of famed Jim Thorpe dies
HESPERIA -- Patricia Thorpe, widow of the late All American athlete Jim Thorpe, died Sunday in her Hesperia home after a lengthy illness. She was 76. In recent years, she had been involved in an effort to have her husband's Olympic records restored and his trophies placed in the Smithsonian Institution. She was born in Joplin, Missouei, and she had lived in Hesperia a year. She owned a motel in Lomita and had operated a rest home 12 years. Survivors include two daughters, Stephanie Nishida of San Pedro and Darlene Souza of Benecia. Services were held at the Dudley Mortuary Chapel in Victorville. (San Bernardino County Sun, San Bernardino, California, 8 Apr 1975, page B3)
Full Name
Patricia Gladys Evelyn Woodbury
(The Sedalia Democrat, 19 Mar 1950, p4, Sedalia, Missouri & in numerous other papers across the nation.)
Previous Marriages Include
To Henry Keith Dooley
To Mr. Askew∼Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945, she was with him when he died.
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