Patricia Tracey Talkington

Patricia Tracey Talkington, sweetest sister, most fun aunt, favorite grade school teacher, avid antique collector, loving friend and wife passed away peacefully on January 9, 2021 following a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Patty was born March 15, 1939 in her longtime home of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was the fourth child of Madeleine and Roche C. Shehan. Patty was the baby of her family and was known for her kind heart and joyful spirit. She attended St. Thomas High School where she was a cheerleader. She attended the University of Kentucky in Lexington before transferring to Sienna Heights College in Adrian, MI, from where she graduated and entered the Convent of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, taking the name Sister Therese Lisieux, the “little flower”. Patty left the convent prior to taking her final vows and returned to Ann Arbor where she continued a 30-plus year career as an elementary school teacher in the Ann Arbor public schools, mostly teaching first and second grades at Angell School. Blessed with a nurturing soul, Patty excelled at her craft and was adored by her students. During this time she developed a passion for early American antiques and a love of golf. Patty and her husband, Denny Tracey, built a renowned collection of their own during their decades as antique dealers. Patty would traverse the Midwest and Northeast with her cousin, and dear friend, Polly Minick, looking for the perfect pieces to add to her collection. She cherished these trips and her annual ”business” trips to New Hampshire and Maine each summer with her sisters. After she and Denny divorced, Patty was touched by fate and reconnected with Tom Talkington, then a widower, whom she had first met years before at the Washtenaw Country Club where she was a member and he was the head golf pro. They soon fell in love and were married, splitting time between their home Port St. Lucie, Florida and Jackson, Tennessee before Tom passed in 2015. By then, aware of her Alzheimer’s, Patty moved to San Antonio, Texas, where her sister, Greta, lived and resided at The Village of Incarnate Word until she passed.

Patty was preceded in death by her husband, Tom, and her parents, as well as, her brother William Roche Shehan and her sister Greta Shehan Broderick. She is survived by her sister Kay Shehan of St. Louis, niece Carla Broderick of Los Angeles and nephew, Peter Broderick of San Antonio, his wife Laura Broderick and children Will and Kate, as well as, her cousin, Polly Minick, of Naples, Florida. Patty was a bright ray of sunshine who blessed all who were fortunate to meet her with her warmth and kindness and she will be deeply missed.

A celebration of Patty’s life will be held in Ann Arbor at a later date once conditions improve.

Our family would like to thank the numerous loving caregivers at the De Matel House of The Village of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Sisters Care, and Accountable Aging that helped provide Patty with the most loving and compassionate care.

Patty loved animals and had many wonderful pets whom she adored; in lieu of flowers, memorial may be made to the Humane Society of Huron Valley, Michigan or The Humane Society of St. Lucie County, Florida.