Patricia McGill Woods

Patricia M. Woods lived a long and fulfilling life; she was eighty-nine-years-old and on January 21, 2025 she was reunited with her beloved husband, Hayden in heaven. They are now joyfully walking side-by-side, hand-in hand, in “the land that knows no separation.”

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Patricia Lou McGill was born on August 18, 1935, to her parents, Paul Leonard and Julia Viola McGill. She grew up in an inner-city immigrant neighborhood mostly comprised of Irish, Polish, and Slavik families along with her five brothers, Paul, Gary, James, Terrance, and Lawrence.

A self-proclaimed rough-n-tumble tomboy she loved to run, perform “death-defying” roof-top jumps, to entertain her little brothers, and play all kinds of street ball games with the neighborhood children. She excelled at school and was particularly proud of her award-winning Victory Garden. Under difficult family circumstances, at the age of sixteen, she left school, for a full-time job, in order to help support her mother and three younger brothers.

On April 11, 1953, Patricia married Hayden O’Donnell Woods, Jr. who had just completed a four-year enlistment with the United States Marine Corps; that included a one-year tour of combat duty in the Korean War. Their union was a testament to profound love and companionship. She famously said, “God created him just for me.” Hayden and Patricia were true soulmates throughout their incredible seventy-year union.

Two years after marriage they moved to California to pursue their “American Dream” and several years later, they celebrated the birth of their daughters, Tricia and Julia.

She was a dedicated homemaker and a remarkable seamstress who enjoyed sewing school clothes, costumes, and prom dresses for her girls.

She was a devout Christian who loved Jesus and would share the Good News with anyone and everyone she encountered. With the heart of a servant, she looked for opportunities to care for the elderly in the churches she belonged to, as well as the senior citizens in her own neighborhoods, taking them grocery shopping, visiting with a lunch meal, and cooking entire hot Sunday suppers that were hand-delivered by one of her daughters. Later in life she volunteered at St. Anthony’s hospital and befriended lonely residents in several local nursing homes.

In 1990 she decided to take care of unfinished business and registered in McClain Community High School to finally obtain her high school diploma. The adult-high school students, in attendance, were mostly comprised of teenagers who had failed to thrive in traditional school environments. Much to her teachers’ delight she would occasionally chide them for being disruptive in class. Again, she excelled at her studies and graduated within one year. She was then invited to be the keynote speaker, at a statewide conference, advocating on behalf of continued funding for adult-high-school education.

She was a wonderful, dedicated mother but admittedly the biggest joy of her life was becoming a grandmother to her granddaughter, Ara, her grandson, Joshua, and her bonus grandson, Jackson. She spent many days reading to them, taking them on afternoon trips to the neighborhood park, occasional trips to theme parks, playing board games, attending Field Day and Grandparent’s Day events at school, planning road trips to San Francisco, Mt. Rushmore and Lake Powell, as well as, babysitting whenever the opportunity presented itself.

She is survived by her daughter, Tricia Dampier and her husband, Russell, her daughter, Julia Erickson and her husband, Kevin, her grandsons, Joshua Burkin, Jackson Burkin, her granddaughter, Ara Francis and her husband, Ellis Jones, and her great-grandchildren, Archer and Eowyn Francis-Jones.

If she had one last thing to say it would be:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Family will be holding private services for Patricia.