Trail Mix just won’t be the same without Patsi spicing up our comment threads, but for those of us who got to know her I am sure there will be many times we’ll wonder ‘what would Patsi say.’ Her fierce advocacy in defense of women shall forever guide us here. See our Sunday thread of memories about this unforgettable woman.
Excerpts from coverage of her passing on Saturday night:
Patsi Bale Cox
To her friends, her family and her collection of social networking contacts, Ms. Cox was a hilarious, candid and outspoken lover of music and conversation. To other music fans, she was Loretta Lynn or Wynonna Judd, Tanya Tucker or Ralph Emery: Hers was the name that appeared in smaller print, just underneath the stars’ name, on numerous autobiographies, including several that landed on The New York Times best-seller list. — The Tennessean
The history of country music will be harder to write without Patsi Bale Cox. However, she gave the importance of keeping the memories alive, and for the music community her memory will be kept alive. — Lexington Country Music Examiner
Patsi Bale Cox Book Collection:
- Georgette Jones: The Three of Us: Growing Up with Tammy and George
- Wynonna: Coming Home to Myself
- Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough: A Memoir
- Garth Brooks: Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom
- Tony Orlando: Halfway to Paradise
- Ralph Emery: 50 Years Down a Country Road
- Ralph Emery: The View From Nashville
- Jenny Jones: My Story
- Tanya Tucker: Nickel Dreams: My Life
- Pat Benatar: Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir
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83 Responses to See You Later, Patsi
Now on The Trail
“YeeeeHaaaaw”…just like patsi would say…..
Thanks Craig; just made my wife read this with me….she wants to know..my wife does…how and when did I meet Patsi……this hurts just as if she were real…how can I explain to anyone, about the people here on the Trail…and others over at the swamp…..that they are all real, and loved……….
Sea,
Thanks for the big hugs. they have been missed…back at u.!!…….
Looking over at the Political Wire — it looks like Romney is the one. Although I am hoping for a Gary Johnson wave.
Maybe the sane Republicans will come out. Speaking of which what ever happened to the Obamacans --where is Susan Eisenhower now
and all those others who said they preferred Obama to McCain..strangely silent these days.
Last night I had dinner with five people who all voted for Obama and now regret it.
Check Please!
I wish to take this comment space to sort of speak to Patsi’s family, and her close friends Tanya and Georgette especially, to ensure you all that even as most of us never met Patsi face to face , nor did any of know any of the world famous people she knew so well, we loved her just the same, for her wit, her humor, and the way she educated us . For she was an example for excellence, because she stood up for what and who she believed in. I just bet that for you, her close family and giant cirle of personal friends, the loss is overwhelming, so stay strong. Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix commenters loved your loved one.
KGC, I’m curious about your five dinner partners: they wish they had voted McCain?
The other day Craig Crawford posted an entry from Lardass Liberal’s blog; the topic was how the White House, pre HST, is buried under a Virginia baseball field. I sent it to all my friends, people mostly in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and nobody had known about this. Thanks, Sean Holton!
Over the past few years Sean Holton had mentioned his 1997 Across the USA Bicycle Tour he rode. A couple years ago he posted this short remembrance of riding into Fargo, into the wind.
http://seanholton.wordpress.com/2009/09/
cajunjoe
No not that! They wished it would have been a different Democrat…
I’m still crying this morning. The world has lost a remarkable woman.
A few yrs ago, Patsi did an exhaustive email interview of me. Said she was preparing for writing a magazine article on what made creative people tick… and that hopefully it would become a book. What really struck me was the very intelligent questions she asked. I could tell she really understood artists.
I never heard if she had the article published and obviously she didn’t write the book. But it did bring us closer and made me appreciate the person she was.
I think Patsi is part of Lard’s welcoming committee -- she is setting up the bar now.
I wish I were born rich.
“I think Patsi is part of Lard’s welcoming committee – she is setting up the bar now.”
Love this thought.!!
If anyone believes in re-incarnation:
The Chemicals in Patsi’s body are now floating up into the skies…she will make the clouds shake with the quality of her make up, then she will be coming down to us in the form of rain drops….im going to catch a few of them…no matter what im doing, where im at; when it starts to rain…im going to try tocatch a few of patsi drops………later
If Patsi’s setting up the bar, there’d better be a lovely sealed bottle of Jamesons waiting for Lard to uncap. Craig, I’ve learned that talking sports makes everything better. My love to you, David and Sean. I’ve been looking over his facebook updates — very funny stuff. Crying and laughing at the same time.
Hey… wasn’t it Patsi who gave us that story about the rich southern tradition of saying “God bless his/her little heart…
I’m looking forward to: “The Greatest Story Ever Told” as told to Patsi Bale Cox.
As I’m want to do, I left an after closing time post on the last thread -- something about wakes, old friends and sailing and stuff. Read it or not -- it’s your time to waste.
Patsi would probably tell us to shut up and get back to criticizing Obama and the ‘can’ts, but I have to say that I almost feel like I’ve lost the intelligent, irreverent smartass older sister I never had. I dearly loved Patsi’s contributions to this place and loved her gentle (well, sometimes) evisceration of politicians and their followers who couldn’t seem to get their conflicting positions straight. And I loved her sense of humor. I think she got more RFLMFAOs out of me than anyone else here or anywhere. I’m incredibly saddened that she’s gone and am pained at how she went -- I saw my mother struggle with the same disease, and it ain’t a pretty sight. All I can say is breathe easy, Patsi.
I am so humbled by Patsi and Sean’s talent. The absolute outgoing personas, empathetic humans. You are quite the magnet, Mr. Crawford!
What a wonderful gift Patsi has bestowed, bringing us together again. Her passing gives me resolve for at least two goals: To finally and forevermore quit smoking, and to get off my lazy ass and get to work doing something that really matters.
then it will all be worth it, Craig.
CC
Please stop smoking and I already think you do things that matter
I posted earlier about Kaiser California dumping their low income seniors. I have been trying to help a friend being dumped from Kaiser.
First all — medicare is NOT free -
second -- if Med-i-Cal is paying the premium why does Kaiser care
third -- Kaiser gave out false and inaccurate information in order to justify their ridiculous behavior
Kaiser sucks -- they are treating the poorest and most vulnerable of the elderly with the crassness that is unique to the insurance industry.
It turns out Kaiser claims to have a medical financial assistance program for such situations about this but if they don’t tell anyone except to claim they have it --does it really count?
Blonde I don’t deserve or want any credit. I am just the bartender here, and honored to be so.
Then pour me a scotch and let me sit a while.
Well, shit.
RIP Patsi who only got her damned Medicare for one lousy year.
And here I sit in the ICU in Columbia since Friday early-AM after waking in a pool of blood after passing an estimated two-litres of blood. After a couple of more scares here and ten transfusions, and lots of steroids, I think I’ve turned the corner.Poor Stinky.
Good Obit Craig.
Took the girl from screen name to author , very nice.
Flatus
Jeeze louise -poor stinky…poor you and poor the rest of us
Oh my god.
Flatus…
OMG… sending lots of light and love at you and Stinky. Please take care and get back to polishing Rosemary’s fenders ASAP.
Quit smoking. Tobacco will stunt your life.
This blogging from the ICU , has got to stop.
The price of pie is going up, again …….
http://urbandiner.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shiningloyd-246x300.jpg
“Lloyd, make it a ginger ale, but make it a strong one.”. said Dexter at the hotel bar.
Dang it all Flatus get yourself out of that ICU and take care!
And as former Alabama Gov. Bill Baxley once said to the barkeep when he drank me under the table, “Bring me a beer to settle my stomach.”
I’m doin it this time. I really am. For Patsi.
Just tossed my last pack KGC. This is it. Patsi is yelling at me right now to stop this stupid habit.
Bout time!! Her pain and her feeling of drowning scared me. I hope you take that in.
Flatus,
I hope you will be ok! Glad your blogging as i’m sure that means you have turned the corner..
Craig,
Glad your quitting this time for real..Try that patch, don’t know what they call it but maybe that will help but please just do it..
Solar,
Glad to see you!
Kenny Rogers mentioned Patsi in a tweet late last night. I had to re-tweet that this morning. The more I read tributes to her, the more happy I was to know her, even if it was just on-line.
REPORT: Wall Street Firms Earned More in Obama’s First Term than in 8 Years of Bush
by Taylor Marsh
So Patsi Bale Cox and Andy Rooney are standing in line at the Pearly Gates when word comes that the 4th Herman Cain accuser comes forward, with who else ? Gloria Alred.
And the girl didn’t pull any punches either.
OK Craig here’s the deal,
I am a nicotine addict, when it comes to smokes one is too many, and a hundred are not enough. I’ve quit at least a hundred times.
If you want to go down this road, I would gladly go with you. I reserve the right to chew your ass when ever you back slide, and offer you the same privilege in return.
We will stake nothing less than our honor as gentlemen, and a bottle of fine whiskey at the end of a nicotine free year.
The money we save will easily buy a fishing camp.
What say you?
Flatus,
Get well and soon! There is trouble aplenty on the ‘trail’ and we need you. So does Stinky.
Jesum Crow Flatus! How horrible. Hoping your on the mend, please get well soon.
shit, not letting this one pass by-
flatus, I value you, your opinion and your friendship. Am always happy to read whatever you have to say, and thank you for all your encouragement and advice over the years. Now get healthy and get the fuck outta there. We need you to stick around. Much love, sea
wooooodamnhooo
good job!
Is it just me, or is Herman squirmin’?
Flatus…I was wondering where you were. When are you getting out and what is the diagnosis? Stinky must be freaking. I remember you posting about getting dizzy changing a light bulb a few months back. I also remember I teased you about getting into the wine box…Xrep turned me on the box, Renee refined my box taste and you warned me about not knowing how many glasses of wine one consumes from the box.
Sending energy and get out of there!
Geez…this is getting like war.
Flatus,
Get out of that place and back to the computer. We love you and all the stories about your family. My best wishes to both you and Stinky.
Flatus -
The Google Search for images of The Cave of Altamira.
Being a great man of our age, I figured you could use images from great men 25,000 years ago.
The Cave of Altamira.
Craig,
http://craigcrawford.com/2011/11/07/see-you-later-patsi/#comment-274343
If you need to ease into kicking the habit, I’d suggest going to Djarmun clove cigarettes. The actor who played the Cigarette Smoking Guy in The X-files was a reformed smoker and thats what he used to avoid tobacco. Also consider some more medicinal smoking leaves…
Since you’re in DC, do not go near any of the crack that the GOP and most government officials are smoking…I’m not sure a toothless grin would behoove your C-Span tie…lol
I’m enjoying a nice glass neat glass of JD for Patsi and I can’t stop chuckling because if Hillary didn’t waste $50 million in 2006 and hire that balding putz who had the 6 week primary strategy, she would be president…
Now I’m going to put on a helmet and hope some random lightning bolt doesn’t singe my ass in retaliation…lol
Flatus -
Thanks , I know who you are. You’re the guy, when things are going to hell, all the young squirrels look to, and ask with no words, ” What the fuck do we do next ? ”
At this point you have no clue, but you answer them , with something clever. It kills their fears, and let’s you get to engaging your brain for an answer.
You’re tool maker.
Flatus & The Cave of Altamira -
If we hadn’t had guys like Flatus, we’d all be in a cave in North West Spain.
Craig -
Death and the Standford Speech.
“It cleans out the old , so the new can grow ”
Steve Jobs
good luck with the quitting, bb. and everything else, too.
“Back To The Family”
My telephone wakes me in the morning --
have to get up to answer the call.
So I think I’ll go back to the family
where no one can ring me at all.
Living this life has its problems
so I think that I’ll give it a break.
Oh, I’m going back to the family
`cos I’ve had about all I can take.
Master’s in the counting house
counting all his money.
Sister’s sitting by the mirror --
she thinks her hair looks funny.
And here am I thinking to myself
just wond’ring what things to do.
I think I enjoyed all my problems
Where I did not get nothing for free.
Oh, I’m going back to the family --
doing nothing is bothering me.
I’ll get a train back to the city
that soft life is getting me down.
There’s more fun away from the family
get some action when I pull into town.
Everything I do is wrong,
what the hell was I thinking?
Phone keeps ringing all day long
I got no time for thinking.
And every day has the same old way
of giving me too much to do.
This song is 42 years old.
Flatus
You and Patsi have been on my worry list for some time, everytime either of you take a break from posting on line I would cross my fingers and worry.
Now that Patsi has left us.
I hope you don’t mind if I ask you to stay on the list for a while longer.
Oh and let me echo what OSH said too.
Jack
Someone said Patsi finally “won’ her benefits , but just for the last year. My list of people who aren’t collecting benefits is all my fingers and toes.
Developing my theory …….
Via Dr. Gupta :
Since War World II
Over 160,000 new compounds have been invented.
Less than 500 have been tested.
5 have been banned.
Flatus,
Ditto what Sea said.!
I have noticed for some time now how you are methodically (Im trying to do that also, little by little) going about taking care of the ones that you care for after you are gone….but wait, wait a little while longer, no; for a lot longer to hang out with Patsi…..I have a few more things to learn from you.!!
I feel that I have all of a sudden fallen into very deep water; and are very disconcerted…can neither make certain of setting my feet on the bottom; not swim to support myself on the surface some times……
Craig, the only way to quite smoking…is to quite smoking…..not little by little so you can slide back…just shit can that bad habit, just as fast as you would some other thing that can hurt you….
We are all one species, all parts of star stuff—Carl Sagan….and therefore we are all one, we are the one…..take care of us…….
Breaking News …….
Tall Blond Oil Woman Says:
The Oklahoma earth quakes have nothing to do with 80 odd years of oil & gas production in the State of Oklahoma.
Or the the new 21st century method , where in millions of gallons of water & “chemicals” are used to split rocks 2 miles in the ground.
Surely these can’t be looked at.
Hi Flatus !
Try to keep the blood on the inside.
I’m giving blood on Weds afternoon, and I’ll be thinking of you. I won’t be able to come up with 2 liters for a while, but I’ll keep plugging away until I do.
In the meantime, snuggle into God’s palm, imagine hibiscus blossoms, frangipani swaying in the breeze, and the lapping of waves in the distance, and get yourself well.
We’ll be glad when you’re running on 8 cylinders again. No need to rush things.
-X
I really don’t like that Tall Blond in the “Oil Elevator”.
She is ripe for ruin.
Tall Blond in the “Oil Elevator” ….. on an ice floe, next to Bear #339.
Flatus, we’re all pulling for you to get home and get that blood built up good.
Well, all my gum-flappin’ at people about their smokin’ and drinkin’ never did a bit of good, so right now, all I am saying is if you are thirsty have yourself a drink, and smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
At times I thought I had the secret; I had found the miracle way to quit both habits…and actually I have. However, I have not found the way for you. And I mean the
consenus “you”…I have never said one word that actually helped a human being to stop smoking or drinking. So for what it’s worth, just don’t worry about it anymore. Just do it.
But…as Buffalo Bill Cody told Jack Crabb, “any damn fool can drink himself to death”. And I’ll add, and smokin’ , too. But nobody can stop another person, that other person must find their own way.
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
If I can write 5 seconds of dialog , I produce this epic.
In 1985 I rode the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago. Returning on Train 49, I was next in line to football’s John Madden, he also of Ace Hardware and video game fame. At that time, Miller Lite was paying him to shill for their lightweight beer. When the attendant opened the bar car self-service line, Madden ordered two Miller Lites. “I’m sorry sir, we don’t have any Miller Lite, we have….”
And Madden boomed out in that trademark voice, “WHATDYA MEAN YOU DON’T HAVE ANY MILLER LITE!?”
And being loyal, John Madden settled instead for 4 little bottles of booze and two cans of soda.
And guess what? The funeral watch continues.
The Pride of Philadelphia, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, has succumbed to liver cancer, age 67.
Respectfuly, “DOWN goes Frazier!…”
Everybody keep their chin strap in the up right and folded position.
Dex,
That’s the problem, whenever I got ‘em I do smoke them.
Quitting Smoking Is Easy
At the age of 52, I had a heart attack. I was in the hospital for 14 days. The doctors recommended bypass surgery, because I knew dam’ well that I could never quit smoking, so stents wouldn’t work in me.
First, the nurse stuck IVs into my arm and neck. Then an orderly catheterized me, while at the other end another orderly shaved my chest. The anesthesiologist held a mask over my muzzle. I fell asleep. While I was in blackness, the anesthesiologist crammed a roughly corrugated plastic culvert down my windpipe. Waaaay down my windpipe.
The cardio surgeon slit the skin of my chest, sawed through my sternum, and used a jack to pry my ribs apart and them hold open. She yanked my heart out and put it in a bowl of ice. While she was doing all that, the vascular surgeon opened my thigh and removed three 3″ sections of femoral vein. Now, the cardio team hooked my aorta up to a heart pump, and stopped my heart.
The cardio surgeon then cut out the clogged arteries and sent them in a bloody tupper ware box to the path lab for the pathologist to study and report on. Analysis : 3 diseased arteries, clogged with well-aged cheese glued in place with fresh cigarette goop.
The cardio surgeon now took the femoral veins from the vascular team, and stitched them into the places where the diseased arteries had once been. The vascular surgeon then sewed my leg shut, the veins first. She used a stout cord on the outside to keep my thigh from popping open. The cardio team re-started my cold, cold heart, and stuffed it back into my chest. Next, the cardio surgeon took out the car jack and wired my sternum back together. Meanwhile, the vascular surgeon cut four 1 1/2″holes just above my diaphragm and stuffed in drain tubes. Finally the cardio surgeon sewed the skin of my chest back together. When I awoke, the anesthetist ripped the corrugated plastic culvert out of my wind pipe, and it felt a though my tonsils, adenoids, and bronchial tubes came out with it.
The darvon wore off early.
While I was under the weather for five days, the P.T. people worked out my lengthy rehab schedule with Sweetie. So that Sweetie wouldn’t come home from work and find me dead, a nurse, Paul Molitor’s baby sister, came by daily. At first, it was hard to tell. I had a 6″ x 12″ piece of padded tape over the wound. Two weeks after the surgery, Ms Molitor yanked that tape off, harvesting 72 square inches of 2d growth chest hair. That procedure stung a little.
I hadn’t any appetite and force myself to eat. By the end of a month, I had lost 50 pounds and was ready to suffer rehab. Rehab was a pain in the ass, chest, and nearly everything else. My right shoulder had frozen; it had to be cracked, crunched, and ground, so that it could be used again. Of course, it would be another month yet before the doctors would let me drive or lift more than 25 pounds. If I were to have an accident, my chest might burst open, and then all my viscera would fall out on the ground. That would be unsightly and unsanitary.
At the end of two months -- Voila ! I was suddenly $125,000.00 lighter and a non-smoker.
There was some diabetic stuff in the mix, so to re-calculate the cost for a normal person, take off $5,000. But, did I mention being away from work for two months, and working at half -- strength (or less) for another ten ? It adds up. That is, it subtracts.
Quit now, even if you have to go through being tied down in a detox facility for a couple of weeks, and get patched and hypnotized daily to get the job done right. If your sweetheart is also a smoker, get detoxed together, patched together, and hypnotized together. Join Smokers Anonymous. All this is cheaper and easier by far. Just do it. Do it, and live.
With all this molestation of female employees, it looks like hummin’ cain is a shoe-in for the jacktheripperblican nomination. They loved clarence thomas when they discovered what a perv he was.
Yes, Patsi, I believe Anita, too.
xrep….Jeezuss H. Kreist!
I needed that…this past summer I celebrated 25 years tobacco free and next month on the 19th I shall be 30 years cigarette free.
My point is this: I am still craving pipe tobacco …yes, 25 years off the lovely Burleigh and Latakia tobaccos I loved so much have not killed the desire.
Next month I’ll have 19 years totally alcohol free, and I lost all desire and craving for a drink after just about three months. And tobacco still beckons me, a siren’s song, eternally. Bury me with my Carey and Falcon pipes and a pack each of Sir Walter Raleigh and Kentucky Club tobacco.
I guess cremation works better for this request, and that’s what’s gonna happen anyway.
Seriously, almost all the people I knew who recently died were cremated…now it’s the rare person who is buried into the ground as an embalmed corpse…as least in my world.
sorry flatus, leave not granted. you being the only sane one on the trail and the trail being in such disarray, the trail commander issued a stop loss. return to duty, soldier!
Flastus, that sounds Horrible and definately scary. Mend well!
Craig, I quit smoking in 2007, with the whole CRAWFORDSLIST helping me along. It wasn’t easy and when I slipt, I mentally ticked it and stopped. . Determination is your only sucess. But if you need support, you have it right here.
Just keep this thought in your head. As huge in life as Patsi was, can you imagine more fun in years we would have had, if she wouldn’t have been cut short! She was still so vibrant.
thanks solar, mio compañero de viaje, but my problem is like a tiny splinter in the finger compared to those of lard and flatus. if your solar magic is limited, please direct it to them first.
btw do you remember and can you retrieve from our old posts, what patsi had to say about us being sparks? it was embedded in a comment about her mother’s death.
This is a fun thought — but still so hard to even imagine.
If Obama can do it — so can you. Good luck — and take it one day at a time. Yes, you can!
I’ve got to post too — Flatus — please get well soon. Sending wishes and intentions for your complete recovery — and strength and comfort for Stinky. Bless you both.
I’m late on this, but Patsi really was funny. She would make the most amazing comments that would put certain people in their place and you just couldn’t help but laugh.
Make no mistake, she would not hesitate to speak her mind, and let the chips fall wherever and whenever. I remember he also talking about Christian Bale and the possibility that there could be related somehow. I don’t know if she was researching this, or if it was just wishful thinking.
I miss Patsi! Her posts were made of gold.