Effie Morrow Nobles Memorial

The Effie Morrow Nobles Memorial Scholarship was created by Mrs. Pat Myers and her husband, Dr. Norman K. Myers in 2023.

Obituaries in Springfield, MO | News-Leader

Patsy JoAnn Nobles Myers, 85, went to be with the Lord on March 15, 2023. Pat was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother and an amazing friend to many. Pat was born on April 4, 1937, to Walter P. and Effie E. Morrow Nobles in Butler County, Missouri.

In childhood, her family moved to the St. Louis area. She graduated from Maplewood High School in 1955 and earned an associate degree in 1957 from Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri. She continued her education at the University of Missouri where she became her family’s first college graduate earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Education in 1959. Education was very important to her. At Mizzou’s Baptist Student Union, she met the love of her life, Norman K. Myers. After graduation, she worked as a 6th grade teacher in the Mehlville School District for a year before marrying Norman on August 20, 1960. The next two years she taught 2nd and 5th grade in Southern Boone School District while Norman finished his degree and ROTC at Mizzou.

Pat was a GED instructor at the Army Education Center while Norman was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Their son, Jon, was born at Fort Leavenworth in 1963. In 1964, following her husband’s discharge from the Army, they moved back to the St. Louis area to be close to their parents and other family. In St. Louis, their daughter, Julie, was born in 1966, and Pat taught 4th and 5th grade in Lindbergh Public Schools until 1968. That year the family moved to Columbia, Missouri as her husband worked on his doctorate while Pat taught 5th grade at Blue Ridge Elementary. At John A. Logan Community College,

Pat was a GED instructor and devoted mother when the family moved to southern Illinois in 1970. When the family moved to Pratt, Kansas in 1974, Pat returned to teaching full-time at Skyline Unified District 438 teaching 5th grade. In 1979, she became the district’s Program Facilitator for Gifted Education and began work on her master’s degree in gifted education at Kansas State University, graduating in 1981. The family moved again in 1981, this time to the smoky mountains of Sylva, North Carolina. Pat was the Grade 1-8 gifted teacher and 7th & 8th grade social studies/English teacher for the Camp Lab School in Jackson County Public Schools for 9 years. She received a North Carolina Governor’s Commendation for her work with students in Odyssey of the Mind in 1986 and was a nominee for North Carolina Technology Educator of the Year in 1988.

In 1989, she was one of 40 teachers chosen state-wide to take part in the North Carolina National Geographic Alliance Summer Institute. The family moved for the final time to Springfield, Missouri in 1990. Pat was the first lady to the founding president of Ozarks Technical Community College. She hosted many college functions and gatherings in addition to her full-time job teaching gifted students at Springfield Public Schools’ Phelps Gifted Center. She primarily taught gifted 2nd graders until her retirement in 1998 when she was a Teacher of the Year finalist. In total, Pat taught grades 2-8 for a total of 33 years, and she inspired countless students – all while raising her two children, supporting her husband in his different leadership roles, and being involved in church activities!

After retirement, Pat’s second career as a Master Volunteer began. She was a rock of the Springfield Friends of the Library and served as president. She sorted used books every week and helped organize the annual Friends Book Sale for over 25 years. She was President of Springfield Retired Teachers Association and President of the Baptist Home Auxiliary in Ozark. At South Haven Baptist Church, she was a Sunday School teacher and an active member for 22 years. Pat kept herself busy and involved, and again, touched the lives of numerous people.

Pat traveled the world with Norman, covering every continent except Antarctica. They also traveled to all 50 states in the US. She loved the beach and visited annually in South Carolina. But her favorite trips were to visit her family. Pat was an amazing wife, mother, and grandmother! She loved to travel to Washington, DC area to visit her daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Mark Hudson. She also loved to visit her son and daughter-in-law, Jon and Shelby Myers, in Columbia to see her grandchildren – Katherine, Nathaniel, and Elizabeth. Her oldest grandson, Jake Myers, lives in Texas.

She is survived by her husband, Norman, and all the family above. Pat’s legacy can be found in the hearts of the family she so dearly loved, the minds of the students she inspired to learn, and the lives of so many she encountered in the communities where she lived.

Visitation for Pat will be at South Haven Baptist Church from 1:00 -3:00 pm on Friday, March 24, 2023 with funeral services to follow. Interment will follow the funeral at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Springfield, Missouri. Online condolences can be left at gormanscharpf.com

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Springfield Friends of the Library and the Effie Morrow Nobles Scholarship at Ozarks Technical Community College.