Pat Austin

at Hill Crest Memorial in Haughton, Louisiana. Pastor Scott O’Rear, Pastor of Belle Park Baptist Church will be officiating the graveside services. Pat and her husband, John, were members of Bell Park Baptist Church for many years. They loved and were well loved by the membership there, forming long lasting friendships.

Urcel (Pat) was born in 1932 at home on her parents’ farm in Citronelle, Alabama. She was the third child in a family of 10 living brothers and sisters. She liked to follow her father around in the fields and learned some words that her parents wished she hadn’t heard. She spent too much time in the sun and had to spend most of her childhood indoors to protect her health, developing allergies which would plague her for the rest of her life. She was a very intelligent young woman, graduating from high school second in her class in Citronelle, Alabama in 1949 (which had only 11 grades then).

She moved to Mobile, Alabama and went to work dispensing glasses for an optometrist until she and her friend went on a double date to see a pair of men in the Air Force in Biloxi, Mississippi on a Saturday in October of 1950. There she met John Austin, a young man from Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, with whom she fell in love on the spot. Pat told John that he was hers right then, as they met. In the years to come, John told his children he fell in love with his “blue eyed beauty” at the same time. They went on 3 dates in total, one of which was to visit her parents so John could ask her father for her hand in marriage. Her father agreed and the two were wed the last Saturday in October in Biloxi, only the 4th time they had met. Their marriage lasted until John’s death in July 2010, nearly 60 years later.

Shortly after their marriage, John was transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico where their first child, John Jr., was born in January of 1952. Their son was the joy and center of their life. Six weeks later Pat and her son had to move back to Alabama, with her parents because John had been transferred to Sculthorpe Air Base, England. After it was possible, Pat and her son sailed on an ocean liner to join John for the remainder of his tour there, ending in the summer of 1954.

The three returned to Oklahoma City where John Jr. contracted polio in July of 1954. Pat and John both visited their son as often as possible gowning up for visits because polio then often infected tens of thousands of people during the summers. After John Jr. got over the infection, the doctors did not think he would walk again, but he got a brace and was able to, delighting his parents. Later Pat would work with her son to make sure he got the exercise he needed to grow strong and walk until he was age 9.

After Oklahoma City, they moved to Waco, Texas for a year. Then the military moved them to Mather Air Force Base, California where their daughter Patricia was born in July, 1956. There Pat’s farm background helped her start her hobby of gardening which allowed her to grow fresh tomatoes, radishes, and peppers which also helped feed her family for years as well as providing satisfaction in seeing something she had planted and tended yield results. They made lifelong friends there, and would often take their children and neighbor children for ice cream.

Next the military took them to Orlando, Florida where again lifelong friends were found. John was next assigned an isolation tour in Korea near the Demilitarized Zone, so Pat with her son and daughter moved back to the farm in Citronelle, Alabama with her parents for a year, waiting on John’s return. Her children remember it being a wonderful time living on the farm that Pat grew up on, playing and exploring, getting close to Pat’s parents (their grandparents), brothers, sisters, and many cousins.

After the family reunited when John returned home from Korea, the family moved for a year to Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington, before moving to Blytheville Air Force Base in Arkansas, in 1962 where their second son, Steven was born in January, 1963.

In October of 1964, the family moved to Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota where Pat became involved in the local bowling leagues, something she would remain involved with until her health prevented her doing so nearly 50 years later. As always, they made lifelong friends there. The family would remain on the air base until June 1970 when John had orders transferring him to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

In January 1972, John was transferred again, this time to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a few months before Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. Pat became very involved in the Women’s Bowling Association, helping organize teams, leagues, and tournaments. She traveled with the league to Manilla and Baguio City in the Philippines for conferences and tournaments. They were there in 1973 when all of the Vietnam POWs were released to Clark AFB. They were present on the tarmac welcoming plane after plane of returning soldiers who had been prisoners of war, with cheering and singing. She and John were often visitors in the barrios of the Philippines with the friends they had met there. They toured and experienced the culture, and loved living there.

After John’s tour in the Philippines was extended for 5 months so their daughter could graduate high school, the family moved to Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City, Louisiana in June 1974. They chose this base as it was about 1/2 way between John’s home of Oklahoma and Pat’s home of Alabama. Pat again became active in the women’s bowling association, traveling the state for tournaments and conferences. Pat and John were avid bowlers, belonging to many leagues. Pat also worked with children’s bowling leagues with Tommy Roche, teaching and sharing their love of the game with many young people. She worked on bowling activities with Special Olympics for students with disabilities.

John retired after 30 plus years of service to his country in June 1976 when Pat and John bought a house in Haughton, a suburb of Bossier City, near the base. There they stayed for more than 40 years. Their neighbors were Linda and Tommy Roche, who became family to them, sharing and watching each other’s children grow and prosper. They were there for each other in times of need and in joy. John joined the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Posse, a group of older men, mostly retired from the service, who volunteered to help their community by checking out houses of people who were on vacation, directing traffic and whatever else Bossier Parish Sheriff needed the men to do. Pat also volunteered for the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s office, calling shut-ins and people who could not get the food needed or medications needed, arranging for deliveries of food boxes to them or other services. Pat was a regular volunteer for more than 20 years. Many shut-ins waited for their weekly call from “Miss Pat”, and loved to talk with her. The calls blessed her as much as the people she called.

Now with a home of her own for the first time, Pat had several trees planted in her yard, some of them fruit trees and turned her time to growing flowers. She brought tree starters for fig trees from her daddy’s farm, which grew strong and produced fruit which she canned and enjoyed yearly. Her talents caused the yard to be judged the best in the neighborhood for several years. In 1992 her grandson was born, Trent Austin Greene, her only grandchild, who became the love of her and John’s life. They were generous with their love and provided for him as their only grandchild.

Pat lived in their home, for more than 7 years after her husband’s death. She wanted to move “home”, closer to her brothers and sisters in Alabama, but also wanted to stay in her home of 40 years with friends who had become like family. She chose to stay in Louisiana, until she moved to Fort Worth, Texas to live with her daughter in 2017. She loved attending Gateway Church in Fort Worth with her daughter, where she never met a stranger, sat on the front row, singing and clapping to the lively music and laughed and praised with Dr. Robert Morris, our pastor. She eventually moved to an assisted living facility in Watauga, Texas where she enjoyed a life of activities and friendships for nearly three years until her recent death. She had many visitors, including Patty Lindsey, whom she referred to as a second daughter, and another kind friend, Kathy Ewen who befriended and helped Pat on several occasions, moving her into her apartment, visiting with her and bringing her thoughtful gifts. Pat met a special friend immediately upon moving into Brookdale, Margie Lindberg, and the two were inseparable until an active Covid 19 case at Brookdale made them have to be quarantined. Margie and her daughter would often take Pat to get her hair fixed, out to eat, and shopping. Margie’s daughter would buy mom sweet things and matching blouses so that Margie and Pat looked like twins. Pat and Margie were featured together on the Brookdale website often, and where one was, the other was not far from behind…. Pat was especially adept at playing bingo, creating crafts, and playing virtual bowling. She felt she had a calling at Brookdale, and was designated as the unofficial new resident greeter until her dementia became more advanced. She missed her daily interaction with Margie, as well as her other friendships and active life she had at Brookdale that was taken away due to the quarantine restrictions required by the CDC. Pat kept up with her children and siblings with daily phone calls and occasional teleconferences as arranged by Brookdale personnel.

Urcel “Pat” Austin was generous in spirit, a giver of her time, and her worldly goods, donating to those who needed. She will be remembered as a woman of integrity who loved God, life, her family, and people in general.

She is preceded in death by her husband, John, the love of her life; her son, Steven, whom she frequently referred to as a joyous surprise; her beloved father and mother, John Marvin Patrick and Sallie McCray Patrick; her sister Audrey Jeanette Beebe and brother John Marvin Patrick. She is survived by her son, John H. Austin, Jr. of Clayton NC; daughter Patricia Austin Greene of Fort Worth, TX; and grandson, Trent Austin Greene of San Francisco, CA. She is also survived by her brothers and sisters; Juanita Patrick Bailey, Blewett Lamar Patrick, Esther Faye Beech, Manly Ray Patrick, Sallie Mae McMillian, Jane Patrick Walls, and Ronald McCray Patrick, all of whom she loved dearly. She is survived by many of their spouses, and many, many, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great greats from her and her husband’s sides. She loved her family dearly and they were always close to her heart and mind all of her days.

The family would like to thank Linda and Tommy Roche, and their children, especially Traci, for always being there for Momma and Daddy, Katlin “Little Bit”, Miss Virginia, Rebecca, Iris, Taylor, Lisa, Aaron, and many others at the Brookdale who knew and loved “Miss Pat”, the precious ladies Sunday School class at Belle Park Baptist Church for continuing to care, pray for her, and send her cards and calls even after she moved to Texas, to the Bossier Sherriff’s volunteer program, that gave her purpose in life, her sisters and brothers, who sent her cards and talked with her, sometimes multiple times daily, to express their love and caring, and lastly to Margie Lindberg and her daughter, for befriending and loving Momma like family for the last years of her life.

Her greatest wish in the last days of her life was to go home and be with her husband and parents. God has granted her this blessing. She will be missed.