Monday, January 9, 2012

Lenore Inez Patterson - a little history


She was born 6 Dec 1904 in Bloomfield, Stoddard, Missouri to Homer Milton Virgil Patterson & Courtenay Elizabeth Wooldridge.

Her fiance was killed in a motor vehicle accident just before they were to be married. She was heart broken and just never found anyone else as good as him.

Although she never married she shared a home with her brother Melton Patterson and his girlfriend Marge which they bought in 1949 in Downey, California.

She used to teach piano part time to begining piano students from UCLA. She was  an accountant until she retired and had a real affinity for gambling on horse racing.

She collected cook books and never used any of them. She had hundreds of them. She made terrific bisquits on her dining room table and baked them in her very old 1949 oven.

She always had lots of gossip about family members, but it was old gossip which sounded more like history. Most of the people she talked about were dead or very old and it was usually something they did way back when they were young.

During her lifetime she lived in Missouri, and California.

After surgery for a cardiac problem she passed away at the age of 87 on January 12, 1991 in Downey, California.



Dear Laura,
Aunt Inez and Uncle Pat bought their home in Downey about 1949.  She never married because her fiance was killed in a motor  vehicle accident just before they were to be married and she was heart broken and just never found anyone else to replace him.  That is what my mother told me.

She used to teach piano part time to begining piano students from UCLA.  She could play well but sort of pounded the piano into submission. I don't remember her having an elligant touch.

She was  an accountant until she retired and had a real affinity for gambling on horse racing.  She and Uncle Pat kept statistics on the horses and had piles of horse racing booklets about the horses and jockeys stacked around the living room.  She, Pat and Marge went to the track several times a month.  She usually did well and was very self disciplined about her gambling.  It was not an obcession and she did not put herself in financial straights with it.

They always ate their meals on TV trays.  You know the old pressed sheet metal jobs with the tubular metal folding legs.

She made terrific bisquits on her dining room table and baked them in her very old oven (1949).  She used to let me cut them out with her bisquit cutter.

When we went to visit, she and Uncle Pat would always take us kids to Disney Land and Knots Berry Farm. They seemed to have tons of energy.  I never heard her complain about being tired or in pain.  She just never did that sort of thing.  We always stayed until the parks closed.

She always had lots of gossip about family members, but it was old gossip which sounded more like history than gossip to me, cuz most of the people she talked about were dead or very old and it was usually something they did way back when they were young.

They had a couple of dogs over the years that were extremely psychologically unballanced.  Smokey was the first I remember. He was never friendly.  The other was this little monster from hell with a terrible overbite who could hardly eat.  They never fed them pet food without adding chicken or beef to the meal.

They lived at 9008 Horley Dr in Downey.  She collected cook books and never used any of them I don't think. She had hundreds of them.  Other than the  bisquits, I don't remember her meals being very good at all.

Aunt Inez was the person that got me started  on genealogy.  She gave me most of the Patterson side up to Francis Flournoy.

Aunt Inez was a great person whom I have the utmost love and respect for.  She was always sweet and kind in a gruff sort of way and never had a cross word for me, ever.

Love, Dad (Dennis Crist Patterson)
May 13, 2007

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