On April 15, 1941, Margaret (Meg) Shepard Patten was born in Portland, Oregon. A fifth-generation member of one of Portland's earliest families, the Failing Family, she was the second child of George and Elsie Patten's six children: Judy, George (Skip), Debby, Alice, and Stuart. Meg attended and graduated from the Catlin Gabel School in 1958 and graduated from Mills College in 1962, after which she tutored and taught English at Catlin Gabel.
In the fall of 1963, Meg attended an Independent School Conference where she Sid Eaton-- a former Bostonian who was then teaching English at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, WA. Things clicked, and the couple married on June 20, 1964.
For the next eight years they lived in Lakebay or Steilacoom, WA, where they started raising two sons, Stuart, born in 1967, and Bruce born in 1968. Both Meg and Sid taught English at Charles Wright.
In 1971, the Eatons moved to Portland, looked for housing in NW Portland, and located a home with living room windows that looked out on Swan Island and the Willamette River. While visiting the located house, the boys rushed to the windows and hollered out, "Boats!" The house was purchased, post haste.
Since 1971, Meg kept house and family, recruited volunteers for the Catlin Gabel rummage sale, tutored and taught reading at the School, served as Alumni Director, later sat on the Alumni Council, and recently handled the School's archives; many say she was married to the School. Others add she was a great woman who never sought the spotlight but worked tirelessly behind the scenes. She was an avid reader and a member of one of the city's oldest reading clubs. All who knew her will miss her greatly.
Her last month was not easy. After an almost thirty-year layoff, congestive heart failure returned and greatly weakened her. She enjoyed Christmas with her family - besides her sons, daughter-in-law, Missy, and three grandsons: Miles, Nathaniel, and Flynn. She opened her presents from her perch on the living room couch, but by January she had weakened further, and quickly ran out of Zip.
Remembrances may be sent, of course, to the Catlin Gabel School. A memorial gathering is being planned for late spring or early summer.
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