Dave Patterson

Funeral service for Dave Patterson will be held on May 14, 2017 at 3:00 pm at Eastside United Pentecostal Church with Rev. Ennis Fuller officiating. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park. Pallbearers will include Billy Lee, Floyd Skillern, David Lee, Damon Lee, Joe Verhalen and Billy Tubbe.

Family and friends are invited to visitation Saturday, May 13, 2017 from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm at Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors.

Dave was born on September 18, 1924, in Etoile, Texas, the only son and youngest of three children of David C. Patterson and wife, Roxanna Stripling Patterson. His father died tragically in 1927, leaving Dave, his two sisters and his mother to shelter one another during the hardships of The Great Depression. From this tragic and difficult time sprang a family deeply rooted and grounded in love and faith in The Almighty that has endured to this day.

During World War II, Dave worked on the home front in the shipyards in Orange and Houston where he began the courtship of his soul mate, Avell Whitehead, also of Etoile. Shortly after the war, on Groundhog Day, 1946, they were married in Nacogdoches. In 1947, they were blessed with the birth of their daughter, Davene.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dave was employed by the Railway Express Agency and the Dairyland Ice Cream Company in Nacogdoches where he quickly made many lifelong friendships. Then in about 1950, the family of three returned to Etoile where Dave raised cattle and broilers and was briefly a partner in a sawmill operation. All of these occupations produced a host of new friendships and nurtured old hometown relationships that would last a lifetime for a man who truly valued love and good friends above all else.

But Dave was a natural born trader by heart and his passion was land, timber and ultimately, oil and gas. In the absence of any formal forestry education, he developed the uncanny ability to estimate the board feet of standing timber simply by walking through the forest. Buying and selling quickly evolved into both his livelihood and his sole hobby. For decades he bought and sold land and timber tracts throughout the region. Although he obtained a Texas Real Estate Broker's license in 1967, Dave preferred to dream up his own deals in his little "home office" in Etoile. He couldn't wait for clients to find him. He found them.

In 1958, the family of three became the family of four with the birth of their son, John Mark.

Throughout the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s Dave tirelessly served on the Board of Trustees of Etoile ISD, the local rural water supply board and in any capacity that would promote his hometown community and the welfare of his many friends and family. More importantly, he recognized the importance of sheltering his family in love and faith in God just as he had been nurtured as a young boy. He supported his hometown church, the Etoile United Pentecostal Church, spiritually, financially, physically and happily. He enjoyed the divine blessing of giving his own time and energies to others by serving as a Sunday school teacher and on the board of trustees of his local assembly. He later continued his faithful dedication to the Eastside United Pentecostal Church in Nacogdoches.

Dave was a loving son, son-in-law, brother, husband, father, grandfather, father-in-law, uncle and friend to many in East Texas and beyond.

Aside from trading, he enjoyed spending time with his family and traveling extensively both domestically and abroad. With him, it was mostly about being with the family and taking them on the trip but he was also an explorer, always curious about what was over the next hill or across the pond, especially if there were pine saw logs involved.

Dave was preceded in death by his parents; son-in-law, Larry Woods; sisters, Faye Skillern and husband Fred, Cynthia Lee Patterson and husband Earl. L. Lee.

He cherished with all of his heart his soul mate for 71 years, Avell Whitehead Patterson; his son, John Mark Patterson and wife Karen; daughter, Davene Patterson and his only grandson, Johnathan Mark Patterson who was born in 1980.

Dave was a man who possessed a great sense of humor and a larger than life work ethic. He had the gift of gab which early on earned him the nickname "Jabber" which endured among his late mother and siblings. He never met a stranger. He lived and he loved.

Heaven is a better place today.

Online condolences may be offered at www.casonmonk-metcalf.com. Arrangements are under the direction of Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors.