19 Facts About Pat Straub

Pat Straub was an American author and environmentalist.

Pat Straub served as First Lady of the US state of Oregon from 1975 until 1979 during the administration of her husband, Governor Bob Straub.

Pat Straub was later appointed to the Oregon Forestry Council.

Pat Straub was the youngest of the five children of Willa Bolton Stroud and Morris Wistar Stroud.

Pat Straub first met her future husband, Robert W Straub, during the early 1940s while she was a Smith College freshman working as a camp counselor on Mount Moosilauke in New Hampshire.

The couple married in 1943, shortly before Bob Pat Straub was sent to the European theatre with the United States Army Quartermaster Corps during World War II.

In 1946, following the end of the war, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon, where Bob Pat Straub worked at a new Weyerhauser facility there.

Pat Straub pioneered organic gardening years before the term or concept of organic horticulture became widely known to the general public.

In 1974, shortly before becoming the state's first lady, Pat Straub published, "From the Loving Earth", a book which covered organic farming without chemicals, cooking, food preservation.

Pat Straub served as the First Lady of Oregon from January 1975 until January 1979 during the single term of Governor Bob Pat Straub.

Pat Straub wrote a regular column in The Oregon Statesman and other newspapers, which focused on her official and personal experiences as the state's first lady.

Pat Straub planned official functions, menus, and guests, at their private residence, a farmhouse built in 1860 in the west Salem Hills outside Salem, as Oregon did not have a governor's residence or provide official residential staff for state governors or first ladies at the time.

Eggs from chickens raised by Pat Straub became a sought after item in the state capital.

However, Pat Straub rejected calls to run for political office herself.

Pat Straub became a watercolorist and painter later in her life.

Pat Straub died from complications of old age at the Gateway Living Residential Center in Springfield, Oregon, on September 24,2016, at the age of 93.

Pat Straub was survived by five of her children - Jane Straub, Patty Straub Thomas, Peg Straub, Jeff Straub, and Mike Straub; 14 grandchildren, 31 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Pat Straub was predeceased by her husband, former Governor Bob Straub, who died in November 2002, and one of her six children.

Pat Straub's death came less than one month after the passing of her successor, former Oregon First Lady Dolores Atiyeh.