KANSAS CITY, Mo. — UAW Local 249 Retiree Patricia Stoufer believes that writing is her gift. Stoufer began putting pen to paper in 2012. However, she shared that she knew she always had an inkling to write.
Stoufer first pursued a career with UAW Local 249 at the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo., where she worked for 32 and a half years, and it was then when she wrote her first TV series in 2012.
Stoufer has gone on to write three additional religious plays over the last 14 years, before beginning to construct her most recent work in 2019 and forming a production company “PattiKaKes Productions” in 2025.
Inspired by NBC’s 1985 seven-season TV series “The Golden Girls,” “Three TT’s and a Nana” follows four female UAW Local 249 retirees, written as a cultural, modern-day spinoff.
Now a PattiKaKes Productions, Stoufer shared that she originally began writing this play as a novel, striving to narrate a sisterhood rooted in culture. And while “Golden Girls” did serve as a catalyst for this work, she wanted to create a more ethnically inclusive depiction of what the ‘80s sitcom would look like today.
“I wanted the world to know that one of the characters came from a different country; she was not born in the U.S., and we bonded over our differences,” Stoufer said in an interview. “The differences are so different, that’s what connected us.”
These four women, Stoufer shared, are inspired by herself and three of her friends who she worked with at UAW Local 249 Ford Motor Company.
“You don’t just build cars there: you build friendships,” she said in an interview.
While she originally began to write it as a novel, she shared that it was her sister who suggested that she turn this concept into a play. And while the scenes overall are fiction, she said that some of the details are true and it was written with her and her real friendships with three UAW Local 249 coworkers in mind.
“Ideas popped into my head; I literally wrote the whole play in seven days,” Stoufer said. “It was easy to write it because I was thinking of my real friends and I was able to create fictional characters based on how my friends really are.”
The original book, Stoufer said, is not currently for sale as she is waiting for initial feedback from the play. However, she mentioned that she would love for “Three TT’s and a Nana” to be picked up as a sitcom.
“Three TT’s and a Nana” will debut at 6 p.m., on Saturday, May 9 at the Scottish Rite Temple, 1330 Linwood Blvd., featuring Emmy award-winner Tony Terry as well as Kansas City native, Darcus Speed Gates. Tickets are available on her website: https://www.pattikakes.com/, and as the theater holds limited seating, the production team has suggested advanced reservation.
“I would like people to know at this day and time that we need sisterhood connection. This is something to show that we can still bond and love people [who] don’t look like them,” Stoufer said in an interview. “America is a melting pot and as America is dividing themselves, we need to love each other and have fun and laugh to get through it. This play is going to bring a lot of laughter and love.”
Julia Williams — a Kansas City native — is a reporter and digital producer for The Labor Beacon. A University of Missouri School of Journalism alumna, she previously served as the editor-in-chief of The Northeast News before joining The Labor Beacon staff.
Williams’s grandfather was a Claycomo Ford Motor Company retiree and avid UAW Local 249 supporter, allowing her to understand the union difference from a young age.
In her free time, Williams enjoys spending time with her family, traveling to see her friends and hanging out at home with her cat, Greta. She loves a good cup of coffee, seeing local, live music and shopping secondhand. With a passion for storytelling, she hopes to bring her knowledge of journalistic integrity to the Kansas City union community — giving union and labor workers a voice, while holding people in powerful positions accountable.
