Patricia Kiphart

Patricia “Pat” Conway Kiphart was born at Medora, North Dakota on September 28, 1924 and lived there with her family until she got married at the age of 19 in September 1943. It was a large family…mother, Marie Keeney, father, Patrick Conway, two brothers, John and Bill, and two sisters, Nora and Peggy. All except Nora are now deceased. Nora was with Pat when she died.

Pat had many stories of her early life in Medora. She always talked about how cold the winters were in the Badlands…so cold that when the fire went out at night, their blankets sometimes froze to the walls. Pat taught in a one room school. She had the duty to start the fire in the coal stove early each morning so it would be warm when the students got there. She always had trouble with the fire. Although she loved teaching the kids, it’s no wonder she got married and left town at the age of 19.

Pat had a baby (Ross) a year after she got married. Her new husband was in the Navy during WW II. He wasn’t sent overseas and they ended up moving around a lot…during the war they lived in Stillwater OK, Corpus Christi TX, and Phoenix, AZ. When the war was over, they moved to Yakima, WA.

Her husband was an electrical engineer who worked on government contracts all over the country so the next few years saw many moves…Renton WA, Seattle WA, Santa Monica CA, Philadelphia, PA, back to Seattle, Los Angeles CA, back to Santa Monica, and then Canoga Park CA. Pat was a working mother wherever she went…worked full time as a secretary while taking care of her home and raising her son. She divorced in 1958. She loaded her car with everything she owned and she and her son headed east…no maps, no interstate highway system. It was a real adventure but eventually she made it to Texas. She always told the story of how she arrived in McGregor. She was driving down the road and saw a sign that said “Welcome to McGregor” and thought “Oh boy, we are here”. She kept driving, looking for the town but the next big sign she saw said “If you lived in McGregor, you would be home now!” She had missed the whole town. She got settled and started a new life. She began working as a secretary at Rocketdyne where she met Otta Kiphart (usually called Kip) who was a chemical engineer. He was a true rocket scientist. They hit it off from the start and were married in 1959. When they got married, Kip had a 11 year old daughter, Judi, and a 4 year old son, Jon. The family lived in Waco until June 1967 when Kip transferred to North American Aviation in Columbus, Ohio. By that time, Judi was in college and Ross was in the Navy so Jon was the only one of the children who moved to Ohio with Pat and Kip.

While in Ohio, Pat worked as the secretary for the president of Borden Chemical, a division of Borden, Inc.

Pat and Kip were in Ohio until 1983, when they moved to Atlanta GA. Kip was still with North American Aviation, now part of Rockwell International.

They moved to Waco in 2001.

She is survived by son Ross Thompson (Sue), grandson Robert Wright, daughter, Judi Helgeson, grandson Eric Helgeson, granddaughter Merideth Helgeson, son Jon Kiphart (Bidu), and sister, Nora Nellermoe. All will miss her greatly.