Patricia A. Mercaitis, age 76, of Prairie du Chien, passed away Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse. She was born in Oregon, Ill., on March 5, 1946, the daughter of Fulton and Elizabeth (Himes) Franklin. She grew up in a rural farmhouse near Mount Morris, Ill., and worked numerous jobs growing up, including telephone operator, cook, bartender, taxi driver, counselor at a women’s shelter, truck driver and the family-owned fishing lure company Bill’s Bait that produced The Worm fishing lure.