By Jim Meridith
Posted: Updated:
12 Comments
    • Service

      Graveside Service

      11:00 am Tuesday June 15, 2021

      Friedens Cemetery, Browns, IL

    • Full Obituary

      Patricia Joan “Patty” Cotsakis, 89, of Browns, IL died June 7, 2021, at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, IN.

      Patty was born July 20, 1931, to Henry and Mamie (Jones) Hering in Browns, IL. She married William John Cotsakis Jr. on June 24, 1951, at Friedens United Church of Christ, Browns, IL.

      Patty enjoyed singing with the Wabash Valley College Chorus. She played the organ in many different churches including St. Pauls in Franklin Park, IL, the Methodist Church in Bartow, IL., Presbyterian Church in Palatine, IL and Friedens United Church of Christ, Browns, IL.   Patty taught piano and was very active in community groups.  Everything was music with Patty.

      She loved spending time with her grandchildren and loved her cats.

      Patty was a member of the Friedens United Church of Christ, Browns, IL.

      She was preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Mamie Hering; husband, William John Cotsakis Jr.; brothers and sisters, all older.

      Patty is survived by two sons, Daniel (JoAnne) Cotsakis, Rockwall, TX., Fred (Rita) Cotsakis, St. Petersburg, FL.; grandchildren, Leslie (Nathaniel) Sheroke, Caroline Cotsakis, Katharyn (Zach) Finch, Camille Cotsakis, Jason (Leslie) Koeske; great-grandchild, Danielle.

      Memorials can be made to the Friedens Cemetery Fund, they may be dropped off at Ingram-Meridith Funeral Home in Albion, IL or mailed to Ingram-Meridith Funeral Home, 241 West Main St, Albion, IL 6206.

      Graveside Service: Tuesday, June 15, 2021, 11:00 am, Friedens Church Cemetery, Browns, IL.

      Internment: Friedens Church Cemetery, Browns, IL.

      Clergy: Reverend Robert Koch

      Ingram Meridith Funeral Home, Albion, IL.

       

    Condolences are reviewed and published within 24 hours.

    12 Condolences
     
    1. Sharon Gargiulo / June 10, 2021 at 2:35 pm

      My deepest heartfelt sympathy to my Cotsakis family. I wish that I could be there for the service etc.

      Aunt Pat was very special to me. When my Dad passed she came and stayed with me which I thoroughly enjoyed. She loved my Dad (her brother-in-law and friend) very much. She sang and played the organ for the service. She was so talented and had the voice of an angel.

      She also spent some time with my daughter and grandchildren and attended a little concert when the twins were little. I remember the smile on her face as she watched them sing.

      Her heart and soul were filled with the love of music and I will treasure the memories of our time together always.

      She will forever be in my mind and heart.

      Sharon Gargiulo and family in Arizona

    2. Marilyn and Wynn Church / June 10, 2021 at 8:07 pm

      We sang in the choir at Palatine Presbyterian Church where Bill was the Choir Director and Pat was the organist. Pat was our son’s first piano teacher and she always took so much interest in him when he majored in piano at Indiana U. Pat was a very talented musician and accompanied the community theatre productions. She was an excellent organist. We enjoyed many choir brunches at the Cotsakis home through the years. Pat looked forward to going back to her hometown after Bill died and enjoyed her life there. The heavens are welcoming another angel to their heavenly choir. God Bless you, Pat, for all the years of service you gave to so many churches.

      Blessings,
      Wynn and Marilyn Church

    3. Teri DeClerck / June 11, 2021 at 8:33 am

      Condolences to the Cotsakis family.

      Pat was a wonderful friend for decades. She loved music, and was incredibly talented as a performer, accompanist and teacher. Some things I’ll remember are how she encouraged my kids’ musical pursuits and accompanied them whenever needed, including traveling to Michigan to play organ at my daughter’s wedding, her love of cats, singing in her church Christmas programs (esp Ceremony of Carols and Vivaldi Gloria), attending many musical events including the Lyric Opera, dance classes together with Dorene and Pat H, our Tuesday Lunch Bunch at Grammy D’s with Dave, Roy & Dixie, her unforgettable apple pie (or pecan – you got to choose on your birthday), trips downstate with Dave and Pam and our lamb dinners, visits to New Harmony and her fave restaurant Red Geranium. Mostly, I’ll miss her musical, contagious laugh and independent spirit.

      Rest in peace, dear friend,
      Teri DeClerck and family

    4. Gretchen Raber Dickerson / June 11, 2021 at 6:51 pm

      We will miss her playing at Friedens every Sunday. The last Sunday we were there was Mother’s Day and she played both the piano and organ and also played and sang at my Uncle John Raber’s funeral. She is truly a sweet and beautiful person.

    5. Darrell Raber / June 11, 2021 at 6:55 pm

      I went to grade school with her at Eph Hall Elementary School and she was four years ahead of me. She ride her yellow bicycle to school and she told me recently that she still has that yellow bicycle and her tin drinking cup. She was always smiling,

    6. ILA webster / June 12, 2021 at 1:05 pm

      I was so sorry to hear about Pat. She was such a lovely, talented person. We enjoyed our dinners out and interesting conversations with Bill and Pat. My sincere condolence to the family.
      ILA Webster

    7. Curtis Ingram / June 12, 2021 at 3:39 pm

      Such a joy to remember that little Hering girl from Browns that was so talented and married that guy with the name that we country folk couldn’t even pronounce. Even though she was about 4 years older than me I remember her musical talent and that she was such a sweet person. Sing and play on dear one.
      Curtis & Dolores Ingram

    8. Dorene Wackerfuss / June 14, 2021 at 11:53 am

      I am so saddened to hear of Pat’s passing. We had a musical and dance connection for several decades. I first met Pat through musical theater, I as choreographer and she as rehearsal pianist. When she was interested in ballet lessons, I told her I could start a class if she could find me 3 more students. And she did, thus beginning 20 plus years of ballet lessons with a wonderful group of women who became my friends. We looked forward to going out to a coffee place after class and chatting about our week. Many coffee shop went out of business, but our little band went on to the next one!

      Pat also played piano at my sons’ high school choir performances, so my kids knew her as well.

      I will miss a good friend. I recall her singing as Mother Abbess Climb Every Mountain in a production The Sound of Music. Now she is in the heavenly choir.

    9. Eva Groft / June 14, 2021 at 4:34 pm

      I sang in the choir at the Presbyterian Church in Palatine. IL for over 30 years while Pat was organist and later organist/choir director. Pat was a wonderfully talented person and could sing difficult pieces while also playing. She was truly amazing. She was an excellent piano teacher and produced many accomplished pianists and vocalists. In addition. she was a friend to so many of us and had great energy and enthusiasm for all. She will be greatly missed on this earth, and I feel so lucky to have know her and heard that wonderful laugh she had. I know she is singing with the angels.

      Eva Groft

    10. Nick and Kerry Cline / June 15, 2021 at 3:20 am

      Patty was my mom’s first cousin, they knew each other in childhood and continued to be great friends for life. I am sure my mother saw Patty as a role model, not only as kids but for her whole life.
      I knew Patty as long as I can remember. Earliest and favorite memories were spending Thanksgiving at her parents house near Browns, the house that she moved back to live in when she retired.
      Those gatherings with the whole Cotsakis and Hering families in attendence were such a great mix of people with different personalities and backgrounds that they left a lifelong impression on me.
      Patty and Bill opened their home in Palatine to me many times. One of the more memorable times were with my mother and Kerry (my then fiancee) on our way to New Zealand for our wedding via Midway airport.
      A later trip returning home to Alaska from midway airport during an epic Chicago blizzzard that kept my dog and I stuck in the terminal for 12 hours, and my parents, who had driven me up from Mt Carmel, stranded at Patty’s for a few days until the roads cleared.
      Patty and Bill often took us out to the local Greek restaurants when we were up there for a visit and that was always an enjoyable mixture of culture and cuisine.
      Patty was very supportive to my mother when mom got cancer, and she was very supportive to me after mom died.
      I was blessed to get to spend some time with Patty after she moved back to her family home. Kerry and I had Christmas with her in Illinois in 2013 and got to spend time with her and her group of loving and supportive friends. Patty shared her home with me again when I visited Illinois in 2017, we went to some local music venues and watched the deer and racoons from her porch.
      She came to visit us in Alaska the summer of 2014. Patty and I flew up together and Kerry and I did our best to show her around. We introduced her to our Alaska friends and she charmed everyone of them. I think she enjoyed that visit, Kerry and I certainly did.
      I feel blessed to have known Patty. She was smart, talented and beautiful, and while she did not suffer fools, she was loving and supportive to her family and friends and most anyone that made her acquaintance.
      Kerry and I would like to offer our sincere condolances to her familiy and many friends.
      Patty will live on in all our hearts.
      Nick and Kerry Cline

    11. Rev. Susan Tyrrel / August 2, 2021 at 11:26 am

      We grieve the loss of Pat, who was our very dedicated Music Director from 2010 – 2014.
      She was a true joy and an accomplished musician.
      Her gift of a grand piano, in our sanctuary, is another way she showed love and care for us and her craft.
      May she rest in eternal peace, as the music of heaven surrounds her.
      Sincerely,
      Rev. Susan Tyrrel
      and the congregation of
      Immanuel United Church of Christ
      Bartlett, IL

    12. Pam Hering / December 29, 2022 at 4:12 pm

      I am so sorry to hear about Aunt Patty’s passing. I am her older brother, George Hering’s, daughter Pam and Aunt Patty was my connection to my family in Browns, Illinois. She was such a lively and lovely person and I will miss her very much. We would talk on the phone a few times a year to catch up, and like her mother, she was always full of family stories and I loved her laugh. I know Fred and Dan and all the Cotsakis family miss her as well as all the Hering family in Browns. If anyone wants to reach out to me, I would love to hear from family.

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