Local volunteer celebrates 66 years of service

By Guv CallahanSeptember 11, 2014

Local volunteer celebrates 66 years of service
Patsy Skidmore, 92-year-old volunteer, poses for a portrait outside of Memorial Chapel on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Sept. 8, 2014. She has volunteered at Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic as a Red Cross volunteer for 18 years. She also has be... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Patsy Skidmore has volunteered at the Andrew Rader Health Clinic on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall for 18 years and she does not intend to stop any time soon.

At 92, Skidmore's time at Rader Clinic is only the most recent entry in a 66-year career of volunteerism with the Red Cross and a journey with the United States military that has taken her all over the nation.

"I went wherever my husband went," Skidmore said. "We knew each other six weeks and we got married. And it stuck."

Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, Skidmore graduated from high school in 1942 and immediately took the civil service exam in order to help the nation during World War II. After passing the exam, she traveled to Las Vegas and served at the Las Vegas Army Air Force Gunnery School until 1947.

Skidmore met her husband, Navy Capt. Edward O. Skidmore, in 1948, and traveled wherever he was stationed, including California, Hawaii and Northern Virginia.

While her husband traveled around to different duty stations, Skidmore volunteered at military hospitals and health clinics. As an avid golfer and member of Army Navy Country Club, she also hit the links whenever she could.

Skidmore and her husband moved to the National Capital Region permanently in the 1970s, and in 1981, she began working at the White House as a correspondence secretary for the administration of President Ronald Reagan, or "Dutch," as she calls him.

"We were pretty close while I worked for him. He was a great communicator," she said of the 40th President of the United States. "He always had jokes for everyone. He was just fantastic."

After Reagan's eight years in office, Skidmore spent another four working in the White House under President George H. W. Bush.

And she found time to volunteer at veterans hospitals throughout those 12 years.

Skidmore said her motivation to volunteer her time for others for so many years seems natural.

"It's just human, helping people" she said.

And after the long career she's had volunteering and working with the military, she values the relationships she's made with servicemembers and the communities she's worked in. Volunteering on JBM-HH allows her to continue that, she said.

"I was in the military for so many years with my husband," Skidmore said. "I'm a people person."

Skidmore also volunteers at the joint base's memorial chapel, answering phones and performing various clerical duties for the base's chaplains.

Skidmore lives in Arlington, mere minutes from the joint base, and has lived in the same house for the last 38 years.

She has some simple advice for the joint base community.

"Just have a good time," she said with smile. "Be happy."