Obituary of Patricia Ruth Hertzel

Patricia Hertzel (Trish) died July 12, 2024 at the home of her son Thomas in Minneapolis. She was 96.

The daughter of Paul Eastman Craig, Sr., and Anna Mary (née Stublar), she was born August 16, 1927 in St. Joseph, Missouri. She spent the summers of her youth in the Montana mountains with her grandmothers until she left to attend college.

She met Leo J. Hertzel, while he was on leave from the military in WWII. They were married September 14, 1946 in Quincy, Illinois where they both were students.

In 1959, they moved to Duluth, remaining for 45 years and raising ten children. Trish took graduate study courses at the College of St. Scholastica in Librarianship, then worked as a law librarian for 30 years.

She was an accomplished pianist, a singer, and a voracious reader. She favored Il Volo, chocolate, Donald O’Connor, and both Obamas. She instilled a love of jazz in her children, and she could trace her family back to Charlemagne.

Leo died in 2004 and Trish moved to the Twin Cities to be near her children. She is survived by her children: Theresa, Paul, Holly, David, Laurie, Anthony, Thomas, and Heidi; fifteen grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and two great-great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her brother Lt. Paul Eastman Craig, Jr., a Silver Star recipient and paratrooper who died in WWII, and by her children John and Kristin.

Private services will be held in St. Joseph, where her ashes will be interred with Leo, John and Kristin.