Pat Molen
Pat was born in Lockport, New York and lived there through age 14. Her family then moved to California, first to the San Diego area then to the Los Angeles area.
Pat met and married Jerry Molen in Burbank, California in 1954, and, in 1957, Jerry began his career in movie making, which started “an exciting life together.” They lived most of their married life in Northridge, CA, in the San Fernando Valley. Pat was born and raised Lutheran, but because of Jerry’s influence and example, Pat joined the LDS church in 1962.
In 1977, Pat and Jerry came to Bigfork to visit a relative on Flathead Lake for five days. “That’s all it took,” Pat explains. Upon returning home, they packed up the kids in a motor home, came back to Montana, found and bought a home in Ferndale. They shared time between the Bigfork area and Southern California due to Jerry’s commitment to his career.
A year after the earthquake of 1994, the Molens moved to Valencia, CA then to Las Vegas where they lived for ten years, while Jerry continued to work in Hollywood. However, when the opportunity was right, the Molens decided to make Bigfork their fulltime home and moved to their Eagle Bend home in 2003.
Being married to a movie producer allowed Pat to travel all the world and all over the states with Jerry. “We’d move in to a hotel for two or three months, get a couple of rooms, and make one a living room and one a bedroom. Spending that much time on location enabled us the opportunity to get acquainted with the local people, not just as tourists. I’d take classes (knitting, toll painting, etc.), rent a car and sight see with other wives. It was so much fun!”
Highlights of her life: getting married, having children (Lori and Steve), having grandchildren and 4.8 great grandchildren, so far. A major highlight was being with Jerry as he won the Academy Award for Schindler’s List. (“He deserved it – he worked so hard!”)
Submitted by Kelly Stimpson
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