Patrum, Frank B.

Friends of Frank Patrum, superintendent of the Blue Goose Mine with the Commerce Mining and Royalty Company, have received word from Mr. Patrum, who is at the Agnes Memorial hospital in Denver, that he is getting along fine and improving in health. Mr. Patrum suffered a severe attack of pneumonia a few months ago and was advised by his physicians to go to the mountain state and rest for a few months. For the two years past Mr. Patrum has taken first prize in the contest for the best flower garden at mining properties. His gardens are being cared for by one of the other mine employees during his absence, and unless some of the other mining companies put out a lot of effort and show exceptional taste in flower selection and culture Mr. Patrum's gardens will capture the first prize again. There will be about 60 contestants this season.

Funeral services for Frank B. Patrum, who died Wednesday morning in Denver Colorado, will be held at the Frank Sievers chapel at Joplin Missouri at 10 Saturday morning. Mr. Patrum was one of the most popular mining superintendents of the Tri-state district. For a number of years he was superintendent of mining properties in the Webb City Missouri district. In 1923 he entered the employ of the Commerce Mining and Royalty Company as superintendent of the Blue Goose Mine, which position he held until February, 1928, when he became ill and went to Denver in the hopeof regaining his health. Prior to employment by the Commerce company he was superintendent of the Red Skin Mine, now known as the Boska Mine. Mr. Patrum was the pioneer in the movement to beautify mining premises by cultivating flower gardens about the plants where junk piles and unsightly spots had before predominated. He started a flower garden at the Blue Goose Mine plant about five years ago. In his first venture at flower culture he was assisted by Ott Shaner. A low swampy parcel of ground near the mine office was drained and built up and flowering plants set out. Boulder piles were made the basis of other flower beds, and by the end of the first season the unsightly places about the mine and plant had been converted into beauty spots. The following season other mining superintendents joined the movement to make the mines more inviting places by making flower gardens and setting out shrubbery about the plants. Today there are more than 60 mining plant locations where flower gardens have displaced rubbish and discarded mine equipment and annual contest with cash prizes for the best kept gardens is a regular event...Frank Patrum has left a monument to his memory that will endure as long as there are mines in the Tri-State district. Mr. Patrum was 43 years old. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Gladys Patrum, and two brothers, Thomas Patrum of Webb City, and Chester Patrum of Joplin Missouri. Tuesday afternoon Mrs. W. T. Woods, Mrs. Patrum's mother, received word that Mr. Patrum was expected to live only a short time. She left that afternoon for Denver, but Mr. Patrum passed away before her arrival. John Newton, general superintendent of the Oklahoma mines of the Commerce Mining and Royalty Company, went to Kansas City yesterday afternoon and will accompany Mrs. Patrum and the body of her husband to Joplin.