Patricia Wenig Dead at 79

Former daytime soap opera producer Patricia Wenig died on Friday, March 27 at Point Lookout Nursing & Rehab in Hollister, Missouri. She was 79.

Patricia Ann Wenig was born on February 13, 1936 in Indianola, Iowa, the daughter of Curtis Meyers and Mabel (Hoffman) Meyers, and raised in Sacramento, California.

Just before her 20th birthday, she went to study at a New York television production school and after graduation began working as a secretary for Benton and Bowles Advertising agency. Seven months later she became a production secretary on the daytime serial, The Edge of Night, a position she held for one year. Next came a six-year stint as a production assistant on As the World Turns.

Wenig later returned to San Francisco where she worked at the CBS affiliate station for one year before going back to New York where she was the assistant to the producer on As the World Turns primetime spinoff Our Private World.

Unemployed due to the cancellation of the show, she received a California call from Ted Corday and soon went to work for him as a production secretary on Columbia Pictures Television's Days of our Lives and the short-lived Morning Star series. She later joined Chuck Barris Productions where her assignments included chaperoning the Dating Game contestant winners.

She ventured to New York again to function as a production assistant on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing but returned four months later to be married. She married Michael Wenig on December 9, 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Before joining The Young and the Restless production team in January 1973, she was associate producer of KNXT's noon show, Boutique. She also served as a production assistant on the Tom Jones and Robert Goulet specials, and the serials Bright Promise and Return to Peyton Place.

Wenig was an associate producer during the early years of The Young and the Restless, promoted to producer in January 1976. She went on to serve as producer and supervising producer for 14 months at Days of our Lives (1981-1982). She moved to Capitol as supervising producer from 1982-1986.

At Y&R, Wenig worked closely with John Conboy. They discussed the production in a May 1977 interview with Broadcast Programming & Production magazine.

"John deals mainly with the creator of the show, Bill Bell, while I'm more involved in the day to day operation of the show," Wenig explained.

"We share the artistic control but Pat is with it a bit more closely than I," said Conboy.

"We have 17 principals under contract and then there are four others who have major roles but are not under contract. All in all it's a large cast for a half hour show," Wenig explained.

When asked about Y&R's viewer demographics, Wenig explained they were not fully aware.

"Not exact figures," she said, "but from the mail and what we hear from people, we have a large following in colleges and with young people."

"I guess the prime audience is 18-49, but I wouldn't want to miss the ladies who are 65 or 16 or the men at any age," Conboy added.

Wenig and her husband moved to Hollister after leaving Los Angeles.

Wenig is survived by her husband, Michael Wenig of Hollister; son, Jeff Wenig and wife Jill of Ojai, CA; daughter, Sandy Wenig-Lawrence of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; brother, John Meyers and wife Kay of Portland, OR; sister, Priscilla Straight of Cypress, TX; grandson, Justin Lawrence; and niece Shelley Dendy and husband Tom of Cypress, TX.

Cremation arrangements were under the direction of Snapp-Bearden Funeral Home, Branson.