Patricia Leger:
CLASS OF 1961
King High SchoolClass of 1961
Kingsville, TX
Patricia's Story
I was Paddi Sadler. I remember my years at King High, with my big brother Michael, as some of the most wonderful times I spent growing up. After moving away to Beaumont in the fall of 1960 (my Senior year,) I went on to Lamar University there and graduated college with the “famous” Class of 65. I spent the last year of High School in Beaumont and all four years of College, traveling and singing with a small girl’s choir sponsored by the Department of Defense. We traveled all of the summer months.....Europe, the Far East, the Caribbean, the Far North (Iceland & Thule, Greenland where it was 75 below zero at Christmas). During the school months we traveled weekends and holidays here in the States.....White Sands Missile Base in New Mexico, Strategic Air Command on Cape Cod, New York, Washington D.C., , etc., ...several posts & bases all over the U. S. ....really, wherever the troops were, the Melody Maids went! The girl’s choir, called The Melody Maids, was actually begun before I was even born, and I believed myself the luckiest girl ever to pass the audition and get to travel the world with them for five years! We were like the sisters and girlfriends from “back home” to the soldiers, and they treated us so well as we got to sing and dance and visit with them. Our Founder and director, Eloise Milam, said that she taught Morals, Manners, and Music...in that order! It was a wonderful “finishing school to my education. We visited chapels, and hospitals during the period of the Vietnam War; it was so special and fulfilling. I’ve gotten to sing at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and even St. Peter’s, The Vatican, but nothing was quite as moving as singing for a hospital auditorium full of injured and sick G. I.s ! The Department of Defense officially credits the Melody Maids with entertaining more troops even than Bob Hope himself❣️
I married a local boy just after we both graduated from Lamar, and my dear Melody Maids sang at my wedding.
After that, I was Patricia Sadler Leger, Social Worker In the big city! We had moved from Beaumont to Houston so that my new husband, John, could begin...Expand for more
three years of Law School at South Texas College of Law. He finished law school in the requisite three years. We had our first baby boy the month John sat for the State Bar. Luckily, he passed on the first try (so we could feed our baby!😀) and he took a job on the island in Galveston as Deputy District Attorney. After about three years there, honing his trial skills, he accepted an offer to move back to Houston to do trial work for a small plaintiff’s firm near downtown. We had another baby boy and the years flew by.. John was happy as a Texas Trial Attorney and started his own firm.
The boys grew up, both graduated college, and found girls they loved, and started their own lives. We have two granddaughters who live nearby, and are my treasure.
After 53 years of marriage I lost my dear John rather suddenly; he was 78. I will turn 78 this summer, and think how much more life he should have gotten to live, but I’m so grateful for the years we had together. . I have been in the same home now in the northwest Champions area of Houston for almost 40 years. My boys grew up here, and the grangirls come here to play and swim and have parties and sleepovers. I’ll stay on here for a while, and then see where I may languish in my retiring years. I still sing! I am in a wonderful auditioned mixed chorus called Texas Master Chorale, and have sung and traveled the world with them now for over 30 years. I also sing in my Methodist Church choir, where the youth pastor is the son of a dear friend from the Melody Maids. She was the soloist at my wedding, and now has come back into my life 50 years later! It’s a small and wonderful world. The picture of me shown in my post was taken by my granddaughter in January of 2018, just six months after losing my dear John. We were on a ladies Bible study trip in Galveston...I was on familiar & beloved ground❣️
Please let me say how tenderly I hold all of you from my school days in my heart. You were all wonderful! We didn’t even know how young and cute we were! Love to you all, and may God hold you in the Palm of His Hand❣️
Paddi Sadler, your school friend.❤️
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