Meredith, former Clinton City recorder passes
Patsy Meredith
Patsy Meredith died Oct. 5. She was 80.
“She was a good person,” former Clinton Mayor Wimp Shoopman said. “She always had a kind word for you. She was a warm person, a giving person. In fact, one of her favorite sayings used to be, ‘Would you like to come over and eat.’”
Shoopman said he got to know Patsy through her husband, Joel.
But, he pointed out, everyone already knew her.
Meredith served as city recorder for 25 years. Service was ingrained in her and in December, 1995, she took the next step and won the first of two terms on Clinton City Council representing Ward One.
During an interview in 1996 Meredith said politics didn’t interest her, but the well-being of Clinton did.
She was known for listening to everyone who could find her standing still long enough for her to listen — which wasn’t as hard as it sounded because Meredith always had time for people.
No matter how many church activities, civic duties, office chores she had going, Patsy Meredith always had time to listen.
“The people are what makes Clinton what it is,” she said after taking office for her first term on council.
This extended to everyone, even fresh news editors with whom she’d invite to lunch or drop by to see just to ask
how they were liking Clinton.
“That was Patsy,” Shoopman said. “She was just a warm person. And she and Joel raised a good family. They’re good people.”
Meredith believed people make Clinton what it is — and she was one of the good ones.