Illa Patricia Hetzer

Illa Patricia “Pat” McLlarky Hetzer, 89, formally of Hudson, New Hampshire, passed away on September 27, 2024, in Roswell, Georgia.

And being a family historian, she left behind more scrapbooks, photo albums, genealogy, maps and history books than we knew what to do with!

Pat was born on July 14, 1935, to the late Clayton and Illa McLlarky in Plover, Wisconsin.

She married her high school sweetheart, James W. Hetzer, on June 4, 1954. It was them as a couple that many will remember – it is so hard to talk about just one of them.

In the early 1960s, Pat and Jim moved their young family east finally settling in Hudson, NH. They embraced Hudson. She, being an active member of the Hudson Junior Women’s Club, was involved with several community projects. She was an early proponent of creating a town beach at Robinson Pond and worked to get the boat ramp moved from the beach area to its current site. She also served as a Hudson cemetery trustee.

Throughout her life, Pat worked in a paper mill, as a store clerk and as a school librarian. But the majority of her working career was spent working alongside Jim at their bicycle shop, Hetzer’s Bike Shop in Hudson.

One day at the bike shop, as a joke, an antique highwheel bicycle was brought in to be licensed. This was the start of Pat and Jim’s years of involvement with The Wheelmen, an organization dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of American cycling. Pat chronicled all the events that they did. She also helped organize 3 national meets and reorganized The Wheelmen library. She rode 2 centuries (a century is riding 100 miles in one day) on her favorite bicycle, her hard tire safety.

During their retirement, they spent many days driving around the northeast – Pat doing her genealogy and Jim enjoying the drive.

Near the end of her life Pat battled with dementia; she rapidly declined after losing her rock, Jim, on October 14, 2023.

Pat is survived by her three children, Cheryl (Joseph) Keuenhoff, Mark (Elizabeth) Hetzer, and Lora (James) Woodward, along with 11 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, 2 great-great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews and cousins. Besides Jim, she was preceded in death by her brothers C. Michael McLlarky and Terrance O. McLlarky.

The family thought that as much as Pat and Jim were a couple and preferred a simple lifestyle, they will be interred together without a fuss at the Meredith Village Cemetery.