Patricia "Pat" (Morse) Fitzhenry

Pat was born in New Rochelle, NY, on January 8, 1942, to her parents, Frank and Mary Patricia Morse. She grew up with her younger sister, Mary Lou, in the fields of western MA. She graduated from Cathedral High School in Springfield, MA and The Peter Bent Brigham School of Nursing in Boston.

Her future children enjoyed poking fun of her height, but one fateful night, her 5-foot-0 stature impacted the rest of her life. She and her classmates attended a party with fraternity brothers from Phi Alpha Rho at Northeastern University. The groups were paired off by height, and Pat, the shortest woman in her group, was matched with the shortest man, Paul. They married in 1962 and remained together until he passed, also on January 5th in 1992.

Pat (often called “Miss Pat” or “Patty” by close friends) lived in Hawaii; Washington, D.C.; Norwood, MA; and Cape Elizabeth, ME before the family moved to Keene in February 1980. She spent the 1980s watching her children David, Mark and Beth play sports at Keene High School and attended countless youth baseball games where Paul was a manager. She worked for the Keene Sentinel and volunteered at school and community events. She loved to sit on the couch and read with the family dog, Cocoa, in her lap or listen to operas on vinyl.

After her husband’s death, Pat moved to Wilmington, NC, where she became a Registered Nurse again and worked at Wilmington Heath. Pat returned to Keene in 2005 to be closer to her grandchildren. She remained in Keene for 20 more years, working for Home Healthcare Hospice and Community Services as a telemonitor nurse for many years and staying steadfast to her routine of reading library books, following the Red Sox and Patriots, and watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!

She is survived by her sister, Mary Lou Donohue of Allen, TX; her three children, David Fitzhenry (Florida), Mark Fitzhenry (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), and Beth (Fitzhenry) Zinn, and her husband Shawn (Keene, NH); her two grandchildren Kate (Zinn) Koski and husband, Declan (Keene, NH) and Sarah Zinn and partner, Isiah Crump (Keene, NH); and numerous nephews and nieces.

A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated in St. Bernard Church, 185 Main Street Keene, NH on Tuesday, February 17th at 11:00am. Burial with committal prayers will follow the funeral mass in the Monadnock View Cemetery, Park Avenue, Keene.

Those who wish to remember Pat in a special way may make gifts in her memory to the “resident account” at Applewood Rehabilitation Center, 8 Snow Road, Winchester, NH 03470.