Patricia Dubes

Patricia Ann (Stutenroth) Dubes, age 97, died August 4, 2023 at the Baptist Health and Rehab in Bismarck, ND. 

A brief memorial service for family and friends will be held at the chapel of the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery with Eastgate Funeral Service officiating at 2:00 PM, on September 5, 2023; internment will be beside her husband at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan, North Dakota.

Patricia Ann Stutenroth was born November 6, 1925 in Mobridge, South Dakota to Oliver and Ernestine (Clark) Stutenroth. Patricia grew up and graduated from high school in Mobridge. She spent a year with extended family in California after graduation, and then returned to South Dakota to attend the University of South Dakota at Vermillion where she met her future husband, William L. Dubes, who had just returned from service overseas in WWII.  William and Patricia married in 1947. The couple moved into an apartment above his family’s home in Sioux City, Iowa, where he finished his education and Patricia worked in an optical shop until the birth of their daughter, Ann.  William got his first teaching job in Mobridge, South Dakota so they returned to Patricia’s hometown, where sadly they buried their second child, Margaret Louise, who died in infancy. Seven years later they moved to Garrison, North Dakota where William explored a new career in sales traveling on the road for Mobile Oil; Patricia found a part-time job as a bookkeeper in an insurance agency.  In 1959 they moved to Bismarck, North Dakota where William returned to teaching at Bismarck High and Patricia began to pursue a full-time career in banking.  She enjoyed working at First Bank in Bismarck for nearly 40 years, making her way up the corporate ladder from a novice teller to an assistant vice president before her retirement.

She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, and a 50 year member of PEO. She and William enjoyed 64 years of marriage and, after their retirement, enjoyed traveling in the winter months to visit family in Phoenix, Arizona and to escape the cold. After William’s death in 2012, Patricia eventually downsized to an apartment at Touchmark until she needed more physical assistance and moved to the Baptist Nursing Home several years ago.

She leaves her daughter, Ann (Dubes) Laib, a grandson, Max (and Brittany) Hanson, a great granddaughter, Laurel Hanson, and a cousin, Virginia (Stutenroth) Reutter and family all in Phoenix, Arizona; a granddaughter, Megan Laib in Santa Monica, California; and a great grandson, Zachary Hanson, in Davie, Florida. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, William L. Dubes; infant daughter, Margaret Louise Dubes; sister, Barbara Stutenroth; son-in-law, Jeffrey Laib; and sister-in-law, Jayne (Dubes) Nixon.  She will be missed and always remembered.