Grace Annette Patterson

Her marriage to Gerald Patterson lasted 69 years, three months, and 13 days. She raised a son and three daughters. She loved Snoopy blankets and dolls. She was social. She loved playing cards. She enjoyed the company of friends.

She cherished her family.

She was the glue.

She remembered birthdays and anniversaries. She celebrated much, regretted little, and embraced all. She cared about others more than herself. While her body may have been slight in stature, she had the spirit and soul of a giant.

Her first name said it all.

She departed this life on Sept. 17, 2018 at the age of 90, leaving behind enormous footprints and treasured memories for those who knew her, but also a hole in their hearts that cannot be filled.

She was born on March 27, 1928, in Granger Township, Medina County, Ohio, a small farming community outside of Akron, the daughter of parents who had immigrated from Slovakia.

When Grace was born, the family owned a farm in Granger and her father, Michael Stagney, worked as a machinist at the Goodrich Tire factory in Akron.

Grace had two older siblings, Edward, born in 1915, and Jennibelle, born in 1918. Since they were so much older and left home when she was little, she was essentially an only child.

On the farm, her mother had an extensive garden, and raised a cow, a pig and chickens. There was an apple orchard and a brook, and Grace learned to embrace nature as God’s creation. She listened to Cleveland Indians baseball games on the radio, but because there were no teams for girls in that era she had to play catch by herself.

In 1947, she was part of a graduating class of 11 seniors at Granger High School. She attended two years of business college before meeting a young man on a blind date. They clicked.

On June 4, 1949, she stood at the front of Granger Methodist Church and promised to love, honor and cherish Gerald Eugene Patterson until death they did part. She kept her vow.

The newlyweds worked at the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company, where Gerald’s father was the shop printer. Grace worked in the secretarial pool. They bought a house in Akron around the time their first son, Mark Steven, was born on August 17, 1951.

When Grace was expecting her second child, Gerald, who had served in the Navy in World War II, was called to active duty because of the Korean War and sent abroad. Grace and Mark moved to Lodi and lived in the basement at the home of Gerald’s parents. Gerald was in Gibraltar when Susan Louise was born on January 16, 1953.

The couple’s third child, Elaine Kay, was born on September 18, 1955, and the fourth, Linda Jean, was born on October 22, 1959. As the children entered school, Grace became an active PTA member and kept order amid the chaos of four children at home.

The family moved several times because of Gerald’s career before settling in Florida, where they remained.

Grace was again active in her children’s schools, baking cakes for sales, playing the piano for school events and helping her children succeed in the classroom. She was an excellent seamstress and made clothes for her children.

When her youngest child, Linda, reached junior high school, the family was living in Tampa. Grace returned to the job force, where she had several part-time positions. She liked staying busy.

She eventually became an indispensable staff member of a small local newspaper, the Temple Terrace Beacon. For 25 years until her retirement in 2005, she did copy editing, proofreading and other tasks necessary to produce the paper each week.

She attended circle meetings for the United Methodist Women and had a passion for the welfare of infants and children.

Grace and Gerald lived at University Village, a senior community in Tampa for more than 20 years. Her many friends there knew her as active and social, a canasta card shark, and someone who enjoyed Scrabble and reading. She was amazingly skilled with a crochet hook and created many beautiful items.

Grace and Gerald also travelled extensively, both when the children were small and after they left home.

She was not especially fond of the early cross-country car trips in the family station wagon, because a mother’s tricky task was to keep four children fed and clothed on the road. But she enjoyed many other trips after her children were grown and gone, including tours of Europe, China and Central America.

In 2018, she and Gerald moved to Discovery Village in an area known as New Tampa. She quickly settled into her new surroundings and made new friends. She was crocheting an afghan for her soon-to-be-born great-grandson when she suffered a broken hip following a serious fall.

After a short stay in rehab following surgery, she passed quietly. Daughters Elaine and Linda were present.

She is survived by her husband Gerald, her son Mark, daughters Susan Patterson, Elaine Henderson, and Linda Ryan, and eight grandchildren.

A celebration of her life will be held at the Blount and Curry, Terrace Oaks Funeral Home at 12690 N. 56th Street, Temple Terrace Florida. Visitation will be at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29 followed with a memorial service at 4:30.

In lieu of flowers, the family would gratefully appreciate donations to the Cornerstone Family Ministries, www.cornerstonefamilyministries.org or P.O. Box 4576, Tampa, FL 33677. United Methodist Women for the work that organization does for needy families and children in the Tampa area.