Patricia Ann Burke

Patricia Ann Burke passed away Sunday morning, Dec 29, 2019 at the Worth County Convalescent Center in Grant City, Missouri. She was 80 years old. She was born in St Louis, Missouri on Apr 8, 1939, the daughter of James Patrick Burke and Edna Rosetta Carr Burke.

Shortly after her birth, the family moved to California – first to Los Angeles and then to Castro Valley. She graduated from Hayward High School in 1956 where she received a scholarship to Pomona College. At Pomona, she majored in International Relations and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, Honorary Women’s Honor Society and was named a Pomona Scholar. She also was editor of the school newspaper. She excelled in academics and was proud of the fact that she and her brother, John, were the first in their family to get college degrees, both going on to PhD programs. Pat completed her doctoral program in Economics ABD (all but dissertation) at the University of Michigan.

On Dec 28, 1963, Pat married Sherjang Singh Sidhu who she met in Michigan while working on her doctorate. The wedding ceremonies took them on an around the world trip. They traveled first to India via London and Istanbul, and after touring Northern India, they stopped in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Japan, and Hawaii before returning to Castro Valley. After the marriage, they returned to Ann Arbor to complete their studies before moving to New Dehli, India. That marriage ended in divorce, and Patty returned to the United States.

On Oct 2, 1970, Pat married Janos Horvath, a Hungarian Economics Professor at Butler University in Indiana. They lived in Bloomington on a 65-acre farm. Patty briefly taught Economics, but discovered that she didn’t really like teaching, so instead she focused her time co-authoring Economic grant papers with her husband.

After her divorce in 1976, Pat moved briefly to Austria where she studied German and economics before returning to Castro Valley to live with her parents. After her father died in 1985, she cared for her mother until her death in 2011. The two were inseparable during these years. In 2006, Pat and her mother returned to their Missouri roots, settling in Sheridan in a house Pat designed.  Pat was a board member of the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative, and could be oftentimes be found around the community with her dogs and a good book.

Pat was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, John Burke. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Mary Burke, of El Cerrito, California and by many cousins on the West Coast and in Sheridan and St. Louis, Missouri. 

Per Pat’s wishes, she has been cremated under the loving care of the Prugh-Dunfee Funeral Home; a remembrance service and inurnment will take place at a future date.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Patricia Ann Burke, please visit our floral store.