LANSING | She wasn't a Lansing native, but Patricia Alice "Patti" Leach devoted nearly 40 years of her life to trying to make the south suburban village a better place to live.
Leach, who died Sunday at age 63 at her mother's house in Fort Madison, Iowa, worked as a physical education teacher for 37 years for Lansing School District 158. At one point or another, she worked in all four of the district's existing schools, along with the now-defunct Eisenhower Elementary and Indiana Avenue schools, until she retired in 2005.
"At election time, we'd go someplace, and all the kids would come up and say hi. All the children knew Miss Leach," said Village President Norm Abbott, who said he last saw Leach in mid-August when she returned to Lansing to check on her house. She never sold the house, even though she left Lansing in 2008 to return to Iowa to care for her mother.
Agreeing with such sentiment was Tye Balthis, a former student of Leach and the son of former Mayor William Balthis.
"She was an all-around good lady who actually took time to get to know each student," he said. "I don't think there's anyone who went through the Lansing public school system from the early 1970s to the 1990s whom she didn't have an impact on."
Leach wasn't just Lansing's gym teacher.
She was a member of the Lan-Oak Park District board for 20 years, and served as a trustee with the Lansing Village Board from 1993 to 2001. She also served part of a term on the District 158 School Board until resigning in 2008.
"I don't know where she got the energy to do all of those things," Abbott said.
"She had a strong sense of community," Village Clerk Patty Eidam said. She said it is likely that Lansing would not have a Youth Center at 18123 Burnham Ave., if it weren't for Leach's interest in the project.
Leach "thought it was important. She personally oversaw the details of the renovation" of the building that took place in 1996-97, Eidam said.
Leach told The Times when she retired from teaching, "I'm proud of the Youth Center, and it is still going strong."
Abbott said he favors renaming the center as a tribute to Leach, although Village Board approval would be needed.
As a trustee, Leach led the committee that oversaw Lansing Municipal Airport. She also had a hand in creating the girls softball league that now exists in the village.
In addition Leach volunteered as a Girl Scout leader, basketball, flag football and softball coach, and was a member of the Lansing Kiwanis Club.
In 1995, she received the Chamber of Commerce's Athena Award.
Leach came from Iowa in 1968 to take a job with the district, and she never left. In a letter she wrote at the time of her retirement, she recalled her early days of moving to Lansing to take the job with District 158, and living at the old Dutch Mill Hotel until she managed to find an apartment in the village.
Services for Leach will be handled by the King Lynk Funeral Home and Crematory in Fort Madison, Iowa, although they had not been finalized as of Wednesday.
Locally, black bunting was hung outside the Lansing Village Hall in tribute to Leach, and Eidam said village officials were waiting to hear from family members before deciding what further actions to take in tribute. Abbott said he had heard of local residents planning to organize a local memorial service for her some time in the near future.
