Patricia Ann Anthony Wagner Obituary

Patricia Ann Anthony Wagner peacefully left this earth April 12, 2022. She was born in Kirksville, MO, November 26, 1937 to Oscar Melvin and Eva Price Anthony.

She grew up on a working farm just outside of Memphis, MO. She still remembered how to hitch a team of horse and enjoyed working the cattle on horseback. 

She had a brilliant mind and a competitive drive that she put to good use, winning state-wide music competitions, playing basketball in high school and excelling at Truman State University.

She spent one year of college living and studying in Dortmund, Germany as part of an exchange student program. In her spare time that year she toured the rest of Europe, hitch hiking and staying in youth hostels. 

She married William Alexis Wagner on March 5, 1959 and began a family and a 10-year career teaching high school in north central Missouri. In 1969 she resumed her academic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, obtaining a double Ph.D. in Human Nutrition and Biochemistry. When asked why she chose those fields, she told us “because they were the most challenging.”

In 1975 she took a research position in the Food Science Department at the University of Florida and as the IFAS nutrition specialist for the state.

She enjoyed the daily Jumble, classical music, TCM, and college basketball and her family. 

For the entire 60 years of their marriage, Bill and Pat’s home was always a welcoming hub activity for family, friends and students. 

She was predeceased by her parents and husband.

She is survived by her two sisters Helen (Jim) Jackson and Joan (Jim) Meade, both of Colorado; her daughter Melody (Harold) Ritchie, son John Wagner, and granddaughter Holly (Robert) Bache; her five great-grandchildren: Beth, Ben, Sam, Mary, and Davy, and her nieces and nephews.

We were blessed to have her, especially the last year of her life which she spent living in her daughter’s home where she enjoyed family dinners and being around her great-grandchildren.

The family would also like to offer a special thanks for the blessing that was her caregiver, Kathy.

The memorial service will be Sunday, May 15 at 2 pm at the Church of the Mediator, 401 Cholokka Blvd., Micanopy, FL. 

Flowers are welcome as are gifts to the Church of the Mediator music fund.