SPOTLIGHT Spotlighting Special Eurekans

Written by Trina Machacek

Welcome to spotlight. Please meet my friend Patsy Tomera, who lives on her piece of heaven in Pine Valley, Eureka County Nevada. If you have lived in Eureka County for a bit of time you have heard the Tomera name several times. In many ways which you probably don’t even realize, you have had the opportunity to enjoy some of the things Patsy has done for our county, through many of her travels and the boards and committees she has served on. Patsy served on the Eureka County Fair board for 10 years running the horse show, where she built it up to include up to 57 horses. She was a 4-H Leader and program director for just as many if not more years than that. As one of the residents of Eureka County she has volunteered and donated and supported much along her life path.

First of all, let me tell you that Patsy has been a woman that, since I moved here nearly 50 years ago, I have looked at and thought, “I want to be her.” When I told her that secret when we sat down in her home, she laughed and said she wasn’t much. Oh contraire! Coming for being a city girl to becoming a farm/ranch gal she was exactly what I wanted to be. Patsy celebrated turning 80 this past spring and she shows not a sign of slowing up. She was married for 44 years to Tommy Tomera when he passed away recently. She and Tom raised 5 children, Todd Schwandt, Jeremy Schwandt, Samantha Anderson, Sabrina Reed and Susan Tomera. ey have blessed her with 10 grand children and 3 great grand babies. She has a full heart and a smile that lights up her entire face when she talks of her kids. e family of Tomera has been in Northern Nevada for generations and that doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon, or ever.

Patsy met Tommy while she was serving cocktails at the Stockman’s Hotel in Elko. She said his hat was in the way and she told him to move it. Six months later they were married.

Patsy says some people don’t like her, “they think I am too rude,” and she giggled a bit. “at’s just the way I am and I make no excuses for who I am.” Her lineage is from the Yates family in Oklahoma. She still gets calls from her girls when it rains and thunders in Pine Valley, where they ask her if she is ready to go to the cellar. Laughing she told me it was because that’s what her family did in Oklahoma when a storm was brewing.

Patsy met Tommy while she was serving cocktails at the Stockman’s Hotel in Elko. She said his hat was in the way and she told him to move it.

Six months later they were married.

ey moved to the ranch which is now underwater at Southfork Reservoir. When they sold that property, they moved to Pine Valley and have created her utopia. Every building is red. She said she got a good deal on red paint! Tommy is buried on a hill above the home place so he can see the valley as he rests.

In response to a question about what she would tell someone wanting to go into the ranching business, Patsy said, “Be ready to work. Hard and a lot.” One of the hardest things they run onto is hiring and keeping help on the ranch. It’s a good life for a cowboy, but there is so much more work on a ranch other than just wrangling. Fences and snow and water and harvest and feeding. “It’s hard, daylight to aer dark work, and then some. e young heifers are like a herd of 13 to14 year old girls that get pregnant,” she told me then laughed her Patsy laugh. It’s work but it is in the blood too. You can see it in Patsy’s eyes that twinkle when she talked of her life as she looked out over her valley from the great sunroom where we sat and visited. We enjoyed watching a thunder storm roll in from the west and laughed about “going to the cellar.”