Early Life and Education

Patricia Anne McIlrath was born on January 25, 1917, in Kansas City, Missouri, to George (1886-1954) and Ethel Howard (1890-1966) McIlrath. George was a lawyer and Ethel was a homemaker.

According to an interview Dr. McIlrath gave later in her life, Ethel McIlrath “studied for grand opera” before she was married and “was a painter, singer, writer.” Dr. McIlrath also stated that George McIlrath “always thought in law that speech was one of the most neglected arts of our time.” Both parents worked to expose their children to “the arts” through “books, music lessons, trips to concerts, (and) the museum.”15

The McIlraths also imparted a deep Catholic faith to their children which would influence Dr. McIlrath throughout her life. 

Dr. McIlrath had four siblings, Jeanne, Howard, Robert, and Frances, all of whom she stayed close to throughout her life.

Once her siblings had children, Dr. McIlrath enjoyed being an aunt and was deeply involved in her nieces’ and nephews’ lives. Anne Einig, who wrote her Master of Arts thesis on Dr. McIlrath, said that Dr. McIlrath considered her nieces and nephews as her children.10

The siblings met throughout their lives “at the old McIlrath homestead,” their parents' former home, where Dr. McIlrath lived after George and Ethel’s deaths.11

After graduating from Paseo High School in 1933, McIlrath embarked on a higher education career which lasted 16 years.

She first attended Kansas City Junior College, which is now the Metropolitan Community Colleges. Moving out of Kansas City for the first time, she attended Grinnell College in Iowa and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1937.

After teaching at high schools and elementary schools in Missouri, McIlrath moved to Illinois to attend graduate school and work as the director of the Thorne Hall Theatre at Northwestern University in 1946. She graduated the same year with a Master of Arts degree in speech and theatre, then taught speech and acting at the University of Illinois until 1952.

From 1948 to 1949, McIlrath went on temporary leave from the University of Illinois to teach and study at Stanford University. She completed her education at Stanford and in 1951 received a Ph.D of theatre and interpretation.

Although Dr. McIlrath had lived outside of Kansas City for almost two decades, she returned to Kansas City following her father’s death in 1954. Before he passed away, he said to her,  

“Try to do something for Kansas City. It has been very good to us all. I owe it so much.”46

Although Dr. McIlrath enjoyed her work in Illinois and was deeply involved in the community there, her father’s request motivated her to try to help Kansas City using her theatre expertise.