“Lord, don’t let me rust.”

After Luther Eugene “Gene” Hunter passed, his daughter Patricia Blaikie found an old Bible that had belonged to him.  She looked through the pages, certain she would find great verses he underlined to lead her life by.  The only thing she found was that single handwritten sentence in the back.
At 71 years young, Patricia seems determined to take those words to heart, embodying a determined spirit of volunteerism she inherited by example.

Tell us about your role with the Cleveland Historical Society and Museum.

I was not involved in the Cleveland Historical Society from its beginning.  But the day I came in, I got a lifetime membership, because I knew this was something I was very interested in.  I became a board member. My friend Pat Mange had been president, but she left around the middle of 2022.  We came to a board meeting to elect a new president, and I think I sat on the wrong side of her, because I became the president! <laughs> We are fortunate to have a collection of great artifacts and history. The city has been very gracious with us and our facility.

Share what’s next for the organization.

I have a lot of ideas.  I used to be on the board of trustees for the Brazosport Museum of Natural Science, and I helped with a lot of the displays and research there.  One of my best co-workers/volunteers is Rose Owens (who is also strong on genealogy). She is the Curator of Museum Collections, and she also has been and is instrumental in helping implement new ideas. 

We are having a history camp at the Cleveland Historic Museum on July 10^th (K – 2^nd grade) and July 12^th (3^rd – 5^th grade). Any interested can call me at (281)224-4682 for information.
Our hope is to get younger folks interested in history.  History is now!  Just having the first history camp—by next year, that’s history!  If we don’t start getting younger people interested in preserving history, we are going to lose it.

The Cleveland Historical Society will also celebrate its 20^th anniversary in October, and we are working toward a special event at the Museum to commemorate the occasion.

You have other community involvement as well.

Recently, I became president of the board of the Cleveland Senior Citizen Center.  My dad was on the first board that started the group in 1987.  He really instilled a spirit of volunteerism in me.  On and off through my life, I had always been involved in volunteering, delivering Meals on Wheels and such. We have a new director there now, and we are trying to get some money raised to help with debt incurred keeping things going during Covid.  My husband George Blaikie and my son Michael Blaikie both do AC work, and they repaired a unit and an ice machine on the building—they volunteer, too…whether they want to or not!

Tell us about growing up.

I was born at Fort Bliss, Texas.  We went all over the place due to the military.  We landed in Houston, before my parents decided to move to get away from the big city.  I started in the fourth grade here, and I have lived in Cleveland pretty much ever since.  I was brought up with no electricity or running water when we first moved here.  One of my grandsons asked me, “What’s going to happen when the Zombie Apocalypse hits, and we have to live without electricity or internet?”  I told him, “I’ve lived through it.  I know what to do.”

In the 1960s, I did go to “find myself.”  I went to Woodstock; I danced in New Orleans; I actually hitchhiked to every state in the United States.  But when my first daughter was born, I came back to Cleveland and settled.

My mother was killed in a car accident when I was 16, and my dad later remarried a widow, Grace Childers, whose family owned the Liberty Café in Cleveland.  We had a definite mother/daughter relationship, and she taught me a lot, and a lot about Cleveland history.

Sounds like family is important to you.

We have a large family.  We fostered in the past, and some of their offspring I consider mine.  At one point, we actually had 12 teenagers in our house for two years…and I still have hair!  So, I’m happy.  I’m also raising two of my 18 great-grandchildren, Katy (10) and Angel (6). 

That’s impressive.  Raising two younger children can be a full-time job itself.  Do you have any spare time for hobbies?

I’m an artist, also.  When I traveled the nation “finding myself,” I saw a lot of art and drew in the knowledge of art a lot of people would talk to me about.  I used to belong to several art leagues and had a studio across from the Texan Theatre. I have many avenues of art that I like to do.  I love watercolor, as well as a technique called Zentangle (pattern art).  I do collage; I do found art (everyday objects converted into art).  I love encaustic (wax) art.  I wish I could do more art now, but I just don’t have time with raising these kids.

You are involved in so much!  You must take good vitamins.

I’m waiting right now to have a heart valve repair that will give me more energy…I’m not going to rust.