- Date Of Birth: April 4, 1930
- Date Of Death: July 13, 2011
- State: Indiana
Patty Lee Cunningham Salter passed from this world on July 13, 2011 at her longtime home in Terre Haute, surrounded by the family and friends who love her. She was 81 and the cause of death was complications from a stroke.
Patty was born April 4, 1930 in Vincennes to Autra Agnes (Ford) and Orville Noah Cunningham. She graduated from Lincoln High School and married Morris Allen Salter on Dec. 26, 1948. He preceded her in death in October 2004.
A devoted mother and grandmother, Patty also worked outside the home for much of her life, waiting tables as a teenager, operating a telephone switchboard as a young mother and, for nearly 25 years, working in various positions at Columbia Records. She began there in the factory, labeling 45 rpm records, and finished as an expediter in the front office. Like thousands of local women and men, her satisfying job at Columbia ended in 1983, when CBS moved most of the Terre Haute manufacturing operation to Georgia. After that forced retirement, Patty worked as a home health care aide to the elderly. She and Morris also were veteran volunteers at St. Benedict’s soup kitchen.
The primary focus of Patty’s life was her family. She made a warm, comfortable and happy home for her husband, daughters, grandchildren, other relatives and their friends. As her neighbors and many acquaintances know, she was uncommonly generous and always ready to help someone in need, especially a child. She positively influenced more lives than she ever could have imagined and literally saved several.
In addition to her husband, Patty was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, William Cunningham, and her sister, Betty Land. She is survived by her daughters, Debbie Fenoglio of Danville, Ind., and Stephanie Salter of Terre Haute, and their husbands, Dr. David Fenoglio and Bill Fenoglio. Five grandchildren survive her, as well: Natalee Manwarring of Indianapolis, Piper Roche and husband Matthew, of Taneytown, Md., Haley Manwarring of San Francisco, and step-grandchildren Brian Fenoglio of Indianapolis and Dr. Amy Fenoglio of Nashville, Tenn. Her first great-grandchild is to be born to the Roches in October.
Also surviving Patty are her sister, Linda Sayre and husband Tom, of Miamisburg, Ohio, her brothers, Robert Cunningham and wife Jane of Indianapolis, and Jim Cunningham and wife Elsie, of Ocala, Fla., sisters-in-law Dorothy Ann Cunningham of Vincennes and Sharon Jacobs of Dade City, Fla., brother-in-law Jack Land of Evansville, numerous nieces and nephews, and her best friend and caregiver, Paula Ellis and husband Rod.
Patty was a survivor in every sense of the word, particularly in her many major medical challenges over the past 18 years. As she often told her family and friends, she would not have lived to 81 without the extraordinary and deeply personal care of Dr. Kathleen Stienstra.
Thursday, July 28th, 2011 5:30pm – 6:30pm, St.
Thursday, July 28th, 2011 6:30pm, St.
