I believe that Patricia "Patty" Louise "Buddy" Hill Tunis is the woman who has been with me since we came back from Las Vegas. I wasn't going to put her name out there, but she's literally going down the line and waking people I'm connected to at 3am now if I manage to be asleep. My husband was woken up at 3am on the dot last night. She wants to be heard. I hope I'm doing the right thing. She has living family and I always really hesitate to publicly post anything that could be painful for families, and 1980 was a bad year for this one.
Patricia was born in Hilo, HI 02/25/1920 - alternate info states born in New York, 12th grade education, was a housewife in 1955 Census, member of the US Presbyterian Church in the 1970s. She was 60 when she died in the MGM fire and her burial is UNKNOWN (if any). I was unable to find any photos of her online.
She married James Floyd Tunis (1919-2000) on 9/2/1944 in Sarasota, FL. Mr. Tunis was in the USAF. They had three children, NAME WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY (B: 6/8/48 in Van Nuys, CA, an artist in WI) NAME WITHHELD and daughter Wendy Louise Tunis who died in 1984. Women don't do well being born into the Tunis family, it seems. James Tunis remarried in 1960 after he and Patty divorced.
Father: William Hardy "Doc" Hill - B: 6/15/1890 (Asheville, NC), D: 6/1970 (Hilo, HI), buried in Homelani Memorial Park. Doc hill was an eye doctor as well as a Hawaiian Senator - 1928-1959 for the Territory of HI and 1959-1967 as the State of Hawaii. Very shrewd businessman.
Stepmother: Ouida Lewis Mundy Hill (7/29/1899-1/9/2000 - lived to 100!) From her obituary:
Ouida Hill, considered the grand dame of Big Island society for more than 30 years through the 1960s, died at age 100 earlier this month (January, 2000) in her Honolulu condominium. She met her husband, William Hardy "Doc" Hill, on the beach at Waikiki in the 1930s. He was a prominent Big Island businessman and longtime state senator, and preceded her in death in June 1970. Doc Hill's colorful career in the Legislature included his appearance in a kimono to protest an overtime session, saying his wife had left for Hilo in disgust over his odor. The Hills were hosts to people from all over the world, from royalty to political figures, in their Keauhou estate in Kona, recalled longtime newswoman Maxine Hughes. "The two of them made a good team both socially and politically," said retired legislator Joe Garcia. Doc Hill, famed for presenting silver dollars to his guests, owned most everything in Hilo during his career as a businessman. But his wife, whom he called his "little redhead," was considered a political and social force in her own right. Ouida Hill was born in Virginia. She was a registered nurse when she reached Hawaii in 1926 as an employee of the Mayo brothers, who founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. In pre-World War II days, she was famous for conducting horse races with ranchwoman Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske, who died in Waimea at age 94 in 1996. In an interview last year when she turned 100, Hill was quoted as saying, "I feel no different at 100 than I did at 99. I try to think young." No funeral service was held. Her ashes were returned to Hilo's Homelani Cemetery, where her husband is interred.
Half sister: Shirley Leilani Hill, B: 8/4/1927 (Hawaii), D: 7/24/94 (age 66), New Jersey. Married to Harold Arnold Steiner, Jr (B: 10/20/1923, D: 7/15/2011, burial unknown). Possible daughter: Leilani Hill (age 40, Bothell, WA) - is her niece in WA the connection??
Mother: Winifred Rachel "Winnie" Erdman Patten - B: 6/14/1895, D: 10/17/1980, buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery next to her husband. Patty died a month after her mother... this poor family... :(
Stepfather: Roy J. Patten - WWI (Canadian) Soldier.
Patty was found in the 25th Floor stairwell. She was so close to getting out! One more floor and she was home free. I can't find any record of who she was staying with (if anyone) and what she was doing in Las Vegas on November 21, 1980.
The information (other than her stats) in the MGM Fire book about Patty.
Patty's father and stepmother, the Hills.
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