On Sunday, August 29, St. Cloud’s own Dorothy Jean “Pat” Rudd was honored and celebrated on her 100th birthday at the St Cloud Community Center in St Cloud. The celebration included a “Roaring 20s” tribute from the Osceola Community Orchestra along with performances by numerous music and dance groups from the St. Cloud Senior Citizen Center. Family, friends, City of St. Cloud Mayor Nathan Blackwell, Eastern Star, Osceola Veteran’s Council, and numerous members of the community all came out to wish Pat a wonderful 100th!
In 2020, Positively Osceola, along with friends, family, and the St. Cloud Police Department, who regularly check in on Pat, celebrated her 99th birthday in front of the St. Cloud VFW across from St. Cloud’s City Hall with a drive-by Happy Birthday celebration.
Pat was one of the first Navy servicewomen to be deployed to Pearl Harbor after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Pat did secretarial work and taught servicemen to read. The Alaska Quilt of Valor Foundation presented Pat with a quilt to honor her World War II service. She and her late husband, Gerald James Rudd, lived in Alaska. In retirement, they built and ran a hunting camp in Georgia; together they built the camp, literally, from the ground up in their 70’s. Pat’s husband did all the brick and block work himself. Their house was brick and the workshop/bunkhouse for the visiting hunters was block. This was their idea of retirement!
Pat and Gerald moved to Orlando, Kissimmee, and then St Cloud in 2013. Pat is retired from SunTrust Bank. Pat’s husband Gerald has passed; they had been married 75 years. Pat has a grandson, Gary Root of Saint Cloud, FL and a granddaughter, Jinnifer Cushman of Michigan, and 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Pat is still very active in the community, most recently being the 2017 St. Cloud Senior Citizen Center Queen.
