March 22, 2025
Patricia Kelly Utz was a loving daughter, sister, aunt, and friend who left this world on Saturday, March 22, 2025, to be with her heavenly father and the loved ones who passed before her. She was the fifth child born to Carl and Viva Utz and grew up with her siblings, Doris, Jerome, Ronald, and Juel, in Old Etna on Sawyers Bar Road. She graduated from Etna High School in 1954 and is the last of her family’s generation.
Pat left Etna after graduation to attend junior college in Sacramento. To fund school she began working at a bar owned by a kind, elderly woman named Thelma. They formed a lifelong friendship with Pat helping raise Thelma’s great-grandson Shane Nelson. Pat also worked for Doc Scranton’s veterinary service where she learned how to take care of farm animals, and for several decades, she raised livestock and was an entrepreneur. She was a canner at Campbell’s Soup in Stockton, raised cattle and pigs on a small property in Elk Grove, and designed and manufactured dog collars she sold to independent pet shops in the San Francisco and Sacramento Areas before returning to Siskiyou County. She had a house built on her land in Montague where she raised pigs and goats and sold her custom blends of sausages and handmade birdhouses. She was happy to provide piglets to 4Hers. Maintaining the ranch became too much so she sold it and moved to Yreka. Now in her 70s, Pat next worked for Patricia Grieb at her barbeque restaurant in Yreka. Another life-long friendship was formed.
