Obituary: Patricia Pattison

Raised on the Fletcher family orchard in Odell, Ore., off AGA Road, Pat and her sister, Pauline, would thin and pick fruit, prune suckers, and pile sticks for their allowance. Pat attended Odell High School where she was an accomplished athlete and good student. Pat had a strong capacity for accounting and numbers, which led her to obtain a business degree from the University of Oregon.  

Jean Pattison, a sorority sister from Hood River, introduced Pat to her brother Bill. Pat and Bill dated, skied at Cooper Spur ski hill, hung-out with other Crag Rat families, caught trout in Lost Lake, and married in 1952. Pat was a bank teller in Portland while Bill finished his business degree at Lewis and Clark College and a hitch in the Air Force. They moved back to Hood River and raised two sons, Donald and Peter, in Odell. Bill was employed by Diamond Fruit Growers. They relocated the family to east May Street, in Hood River, after five years, and Bill worked for Tom Scott, at RE and Tom Scott Insurance, while Pat was an exemplary homemaker, cub scout den mother, and helpful neighbor.

Civic involvement was a passion for Bill and Pat. Bill was a city councilman, mayor, and Hood River fire chief. Pat was on the city planning commission, where she pushed for the beautification of Oak Street and to get those “darn” power lines underground and install some European street lights. Many a civic or political theory discussion was conducted at the family dinner table when Pat and Willy (as he was later nicknamed) were not in meetings.

In later years, Pat and Willy remodeled a home on east Montello Street and hosted memorable Fourth of July parties on their deck, with a cannon blast or two. Pat tended a lush, terraced, vegetable and flower garden that was featured in Sunset Magazine. After Willy’s retirement in the 1990s, they were co-developers of and moved to the Highlands Townhouses on Avalon Road. In their free time, they biked through Europe on many Elder Hostel trips and pursued worldwide sightseeing with Pat contributing planning precision yet love of spontaneity. Pat liked sailing in their beloved Santana 22 sailboat on the choppy Columbia River. Better yet, hiring a bare-boat charter sloop in the San Juan Islands for a week of “putting the leeward rail in the salt” with some Jimmy Buffet on the speakers. Pat and Willy’s 50th wedding anniversary was a sailboat charter in the Virgin Islands, where Pat said, “the Planter’s punch and winds were just right.” She was a lover of soft, cotton turtlenecks and good wool sweaters, shooting the moon when playing the card game Hearts or having a gifted bridge partner, or a flower arrangement that could win a trophy at the county fair, with always that cheerful smile. 

Patricia Pattison is survived by her husband Bill; sons Don and Pete; and grandsons Cooper, Mackay, and Cole Pattison. Her sister, Pauline Kennedy, and parents, Shorty and Ann Fletcher, preceded her death.

Give a donation to the charity of your choice in Pat Pattison’s name as a remembrance, if you chose.