At 90 1/2 years old (her own calculation) Pat Koch (pronounced “Cook”) is still a dreamer. As the longtime television face of Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, Pat’s smiling face is familiar to generations of Hoosiers. “Free Sunscreen. Free Soda. Free Parking” is a slogan that still resonates in the memory of millions of roller-coaster riding, waterpark-splashing, Santa Claus-loving amusement park fans all over the Midwest. I traveled down to Lincolnland in southern Indiana on April 14 (an important day in Abraham Lincoln history) for a rare interview with Mrs. Koch. I was joined by my wife Rhonda, once again pressed into service as my photographer, and Spencer County Lincoln historian/author Daryl Lovell.
The ever-gracious and humble Pat Koch led us on a 3 1/2 hour journey through the 75-year history of Santa Claus Land, of which she was an interested observer and active participant at every stage. Pat’s depth of knowledge is unchallenged and her charming southern Indiana drawl and sense of humor is delightfully punctuated by her infectious laughter. Not only did we learn everything we could have desired about Santa Claus (the town and the man), as you will see in the three parts to come, we walked away with valuable life lessons we never expected.
It is a rare opportunity to speak with a Hoosier who created an iconic Indiana town that has since become a national landmark. Accordingly, I prepared a long list of questions which, as it turned out, only a couple of which I needed. Pat Koch talked about her life, hometown, and the amusement park she helped to create from a very personal perspective. And the overwhelming tone was one of grace. So, although this article has my name on it, I am merely an editor. The words are hers and the memories she shares speak for themselves. I hope that you have as much fun reading them as we did hearing them.
Louis J. Koch (“Mr. Louie” to his employees) opened Santa Claus Land on August 4, 1946. Louis Koch’s son William Albert “Bill” Koch and his wife Pat Yellig Koch would become the driving force behind the town and the park. Pat recalle, “Grandpa Louie was always in a suit and a tie with a violet in his lapel. Mr. Louie had a greenhouse attached to his house where he grew his violets. And my husband always wore a suit. He was even on the beach in a suit. I was sixteen years younger than him. I could never dress casually because then I’d look like I was his maid. The Koch family was very southern, they came from Muscle Shoals, Alabama so everyone was called ‘Mr.,’ ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Miss’ followed by their first name.”
Pat’s dad, Raymond Joseph “Jim” Yellig (1894-1984) was Santa Claus for 54 years, 38 of those in the Santa Claus Land amusement park. “In my day, women got married, maybe found a job as babysitters or housekeepers or in a factory or as a secretary. I wanted an education. I was raised strict Catholic. I was dating someone from Dale who was not Catholic, back then they called those ‘mixed marriages.’ We were always called ‘cat-lickers’ (a play on Catholic) by the locals and were always accused of having all the liquor by the Baptists and the Methodists, but that’s another story. My mother and father had only gotten up to 6th grade. So I got on a Greyhound bus and enrolled myself in nursing school in Evansville. In my second year of nursing school, we had a retreat, where a priest came and talked to us. He was a ‘Passionist’ with a robe and a great big belt, very charismatic, and he talked about giving your life to God and serving others. So I did.”
“So for ten years, you know the sisters with the big wings (gesturing above her head where a hat would rest), I belonged to the Daughters of Charity at St. Vincent’s in Indianapolis. It really formed me. I wouldn’t be what I am without it at all. I got a Bachelor’s degree in nursing, which I probably would not have done otherwise.” As we shall see further on in this series, Pat would also earn a Master’s degree in ministry.
“My dad (Jim Yelling THE Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Indiana) was at the Legion and had an attack of something, they told me it was a heart attack but he lived to be 90, so…But it was serious. My brother was in the Navy not anywhere close and I thought this is crazy I’m taking care of all these people and I can’t help my parents. I was with the Community of Daughters of Charity at the time and they told me I couldn’t go home but I really wanted to help. I was a postulant for the first six months and then seminary for a year. That is rough. That’s like military training. You sit up straight in that bench until she knocks, that means you can’t stand up or move until she knocks, no matter how hot, no matter how cold. No matter what. The sweat running down your back and everything. And I don’t know how many beds were in that big dormitory with curtains around it and no air. Oh, it’s great training.” Pat said with a laugh, “I don’t stand whiners very well.”
Many of her classmates worked at Santa Claus Land, as did her mother. “My family and the Koch family were really good friends. Bill always said my dad worked WITH them not FOR them.” Pat continued, “my dad had terrible veins and I always thought it was from all those kids sitting on his lap all those years and him sitting so much. He had those big black veins which I didn’t see until he was much older because I never saw my dad in shorts,” she said with a giggle. “It was snowing when they called and I said okay I’ll be home. I had to find some clothes, I didn’t have any clothes, I didn’t even know what size I wore. I didn’t know much of anything. Nursing and religion I knew. My friend took me to the train station in St. Louis. The train took me to Washington Indiana, that’s as far as it went. My mom had Bill (Koch) pick me up.”
Pat adds, “I had no hair because we wore those big hats and there was a cap underneath that and it was covered all the time and it was hot. So our hair was very very very very very short. So I had on a ski cap, no makeup, and just whatever I was wearing. Bill said ‘your mom said I should pick you up and we should go to the grocery store in Huntingburg she’s going to cook for us.’ I stayed home about a month or so and then I said I have to go away and make my own way in the world. Because, small-town, Catholic, when you’ve been away and you come back, not everybody was impressed with that. So I went back to St. Louis because that’s what I knew and I got a job in the Veteran’s hospital because they paid the most. I think it was $450 a month. I had to buy a car. I had to get an apartment and uniforms and I had to do it all by myself.” She paused before adding, “So people who think I’ve always had everything are really wrong.”
Pat related the stories about how Bill would come to visit her, “mostly on business but sometimes he would just show up for dinner. I drove home for a visit in my little Ford Falcon, that’s the only car I could afford and Bill asked to meet me. He had built a house where the campground is now (it burnt down years later) and that’s where he proposed. I think it was about six months after Bill first picked me up from St. Louis. We’d seen each other at Santa Claus Land for all those years ya know. He had the first TV in town. All these girls in my class would come and sit on the floor in his living room, he was a popular guy. It was like marrying somebody you really knew. I was 29 and he was 45 when we got married. We were married for over 40 years. He passed away in 2001.”
In the spring of 2006, Pat started her museum in Santa Claus not only to tell the story of the park but also to outline the pre-park history of the town. “So many people didn’t know how the town got its name. It started out as ‘Santa Fee’ and when they applied for a post office, they were told there was already a Sante Fe Indiana so someone came out and wrote ‘Santa Claus’ on the sign and it has been that way ever since. And the postmaster’s name was Nicholas, you can’t make this stuff up,” she stated with a laugh. “Most of the people here came from Alsace–Lorraine (France), sometimes German, sometimes French, so you see a lot of those influences remain.”
“When my grandchildren took over the park I decided to open this museum to save the history. I thought nobody else knows these things about the town because I was here. I watched it all happen.” Pat paused and then says, “You don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you came from.”
NEXT WEEK: Part 3 of Santa Claus Indiana’s Pat Koch: The Elf Coordinator
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
