Patrice Mendelson

Patrice Marie Doherty Mendelson was born August 15, 1960, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The youngest of Kay and Art Doherty’s six children, Patrice, or Tricie as she was known to family and friends, was a spirited child and always wanted to be included with her siblings, Kathleen, Eileen, Brian, Peggy, and M. C. When their grandmother, Nana Greany, lived with them for a time Patrice would overhear some of the adult conversations. One night when she tried to come back out after being sent to bed, she told everyone that she needed to stay up with them because she too had ‘insomnia.’ Her flare for the dramatic started young!

Patrice grew up attending St. Anne’s and then Lancaster Catholic High School. Her love of the beach and travel started young with family vacations to Ocean City, New Jersey, and once a trip with Kay, Art, and M. C. to Disneyworld in Florida the year it opened. Incredibly smart and creative, Patrice loved to write poems and make handmade cards for her family. Patrice was an avid reader throughout her life and sometimes would be so engrossed in her books that she wouldn’t hear the phone ring or family walking in the room. And she could tell a story! She kept you on the edge of your seat, laughing until you cried, and waiting for the next tale. She saw the world from different eyes and invited you to come along.

Afternoons and weekends were often spent with her best friend, Kathy Gammache, and her family. Tricie shared that one of her favorite memories were summers on the boat with the Gammaches: waking up, walking up to the deck, and jumping right into the water. As the youngest of her family, Patrice’s siblings had already started moving out, so she extended her family with friends, which she continued to do throughout her life.

Patrice quickly moved beyond Lancaster, attending West Chester University, and then she moved to West Germany where she lived with her brother Brian, sister-in-law Patti, and their three children. Patrice shared a bedroom with the youngest, Maureen, and it was tight quarters so Patrice would often wake up to Maureen’s little hands sticking out of the crib tickling Patrice’s feet. But Tricie didn’t mind; she loved being an aunt, spending days in the park and having snowball fights in the winter. She passed on her love of music, the Philadelphia Flyers, and of course the New York Yankees to her niece, Colleen, and nephew, Matthew. To this day Colleen attributes her love of Elvis (Costello, that is!) to Patrice.

After moving back to the States, Patrice moved to Downingtown, PA, and lived with her sister M. C. and her 1st husband.

She worked in the restaurant business where in typical Tricie-fashion, she made lots of friends who loved her wicked and irreverent sense of humor. She then made the big move to New York City where she attended school to pursue her dream of working in the recording industry, but before she realized that dream,she got a job at Nintendo.Tricie would send the newest video games to her nieces, nephew, and her friend’s children before they were even sold in stores making them some of the most popular kids in school! Patrice was cool like that. From the colorful hair, whether it was real or a wig, to the trips with her sisters, to her mischievous stories,she was rock ‘n roll. She left quite the impression

on her niece Monica when she hosted her in NYC one weekend. A young teenager, Monica was whisked from party to party, and while we cannot confirm or deny it in writing, it is likely she kept Monica out way past curfew.

Patrice’s love affair with music was finally realized with her job at RockBill magazine where she wrote articles and could regularly interview various bands and musicians. It was here that a Doherty family lore was born – on August 22, 1986, Patrice got to interview the crush of her childhood and first love - Paul McCartney! Patrice knew everything about him. And we don’t mean the facts everyone knew – she actually knew the name of his elementary school teacher. At a press conference that day another reporter misspoke about Paul’s history and Patrice corrected him. Paul said she knew more about his life than he did, and Patrice was invited to a one-on-one interview. There’s a picture of Patrice sitting on

Paul’s lap at lunch. It was her most prized possession, but it was a Polaroid, and she was terrified of it being damaged or lost. One day someone on the street grabbed her bag with the picture inside. Patrice yelled that they could keep the credit cards and the money, but just give her back the picture. She got it back. That was Tricie. Soon after, the Polaroid was photocopied and the original stored in a safe deposit box. Those photocopies were then made into Christmas ornaments (we told you she was creative!) which she sent to family and friends to hang on their trees. Many of us still do to this day.

Her days in NYC had ups and downs: stories that can be shared about her time with Peggy, who was already living in the city; her love of bagels and bialys, pastrami, and chicken livers (no restaurant outside of NYC could ever compare!); and about living in the Lower East Side before it was as nice as it is today. And then some wild stories we probably can’t publish (we think the statute of limitations has expired, but better safe than sorry!). Nonetheless, every experience shaped Patrice’s life, and the best was yet to come.

Everyone agrees that Patrice’s greatest happiness came when she met the love of her life, and best friend, Christopher Mendelson. Patrice and Christopher were married September 15, 2000, at sunset on a cliff overlooking the ocean at Montauk Point, and they built a life together that was strong and true and wildly fun. They lived in Harlem at first and then moved to Miami while Christopher attended law school.

He then joined the US Army which meant multiple moves from Texas to North Carolina to Oklahoma and then back to Texas. Tricie was happy wherever she lived. It was always Patrice with her Mendelson – and all their beloved cats: Satchel Paige, Meatball, BabyJesus, Harold, Maude, Sadie, and GoGo.

And while her great love with Christopher filled her life with joy and laughter, the loss of Mendelson five years ago to pancreatic cancer, took much of that away, and our Patrice never fully recovered. We were all lucky enough to get glances of that joyful Patrice in the years since: family chats over Facebook messenger; a funny call when her niece Colleen returned her collection of Partridge Family albums; exchanges with sisters; a visit from Brian and Patti, as well as M. C. and Bruce, and her niece Maureen; and the joy over a NYC food delivery from her in-laws. In the end, she was taking steps to get ready to move to Florida to be near family. We’ll always feel a little cheated we didn’t get that time

with her, but there’s never enough time with those we love is there?

Patrice passed away of natural causes on January 3, 2025, in the home she shared with Christopher, and the world is just a little less bright than before. She is preceded in death by her husband Christopher Mendelson; her parents, Kay and Art Doherty; and her sister Kathleen Doherty Carroll. She is survived by her siblings: Eileen (Jim) Charles, Brian(Patti) Doherty, Peggy Fitzpatrick, and M.C. (Bruce) Casterline; nieces Monica Charles Stone, Colleen Patrice Doherty Wood, Maureen Doherty O’Shay, nephew Matthew Doherty; her beloved in-laws JoAnn and Albert Marengo, her sister in-law Laura Lee (Harley) Flanagan; many great nieces and great nephews; dear friends Julia and Calvin Erb; and

countless other friends.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that you adopt a cat or make a donation to your local animal shelter; turn on the Beatles and turn up the volume; and that whatever you believe happens when we’re gone, you’ll think of Patrice and Christopher with a smile and hold a little faith that they’re together again, somehow, somewhere.