Patricia "Pat" Agnes Branstad

She was born on February 25, 1924 in LaPorte, Indiana. She spent her first four years in Brooklyn, New York, Connecticut and Green Bay, Wisconsin before moving to Iowa. She graduated from Hanlontown High School in Hanlontown, Iowa. She loved music and began playing the trombone in the fourth grade. She played in the high school band and later in the Women’s Symphony in Mason City, Iowa. She worked as a telephone operator and in business offices. Pat married Engel Branstad in 1949 in Thompson, Iowa. Together they lived in Thompson, Cedar Falls and Ackley, Iowa before moving to Pittsburg, California in 1957. Except for one year when they moved to Boulder, Colorado when Engel received a National Science Scholarship at the University of Colorado, Boulder they called Pittsburg home. She worked as a teacher’s aide at Village Elementary School in Pittsburg for 10 years. She lived in Roseville, CA from 2016 to 2022 when she moved to Merced, CA.

She was actively involved in Grace Lutheran Church in Pittsburg and the Pittsburg Women’s Community League until she moved from Pittsburg in 2016. She loved to travel, sing in the church choir and community chorus, bowl and play bridge.

She was preceded in death by her parents Dale Florence and Darlene Willis Florence, her husband Engel Branstad and son Dennis Marshall Branstad.

She is survived by her children: son Brian (Jomarie) of Roseville, CA; son Bradley of Grass Valley, CA; son Scott Branstad of Roseville, CA and daughter Barbara (Tom) of Merced, CA. She is survived by 13 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews and extended family.

The family would like to thank the staff at Park Merced and Noble Hospice for the care and compassion they showed our mom in her final days.

Gravesite services will be held at Rose Hill Cemetery in Thompson, Iowa.