Blog 3780 – 03.28.2026

My Beautiful Aunt Pat

Yesterday was the birthday of my beautiful Aunt Pat. Stacey, my beautiful cousin, Pat’s daughter, posted this picture of her lovely mom taken when Stacey herself was a wee girl.

My earliest memories of Pat, she was called Patsy back then, are of her being mine and my younger brother Robert’s favorite baby sitter. Even as a young teenager she was gorgeous and my brother and I were both smitten and utterly mesmerized by her.

After I got home from school in the first grade my mom, the youngest of Pat’s three older sisters, would often walk with my brother and I the few blocks to Paw Paw and Lilly’s house where Patsy also lived with three of her full brothers. She was the baby of Willie and Lillian’s children together. Paw Paw’s first wife Jessie had died after the birth of their fourth child James, whom we all called Buddy. The names of Willie’s children in order are Katherine, Lucile, Alene (my mom) and James, (by Jessie) and (by Lilly) William (inexplicably called Bookie), Lamar, Richard, and lastly Patricia.

Pat as the baby girl was and still is the darling of the whole family. Richard was the first to die at seventeen in a tragic fishing accident. He was fishing with two of his brothers when their boat capsized and Richard (the best swimmer) drowned while Buddy was helping Lamar to shore. Richard was unable to get out of his heavy boots and coat and their weight wet pulled him under the cold water. Today only Pat and her older brother William survive.

Upon seeing Stacey’s post yesterday on Facebook wishing her mom a Happy Birthday, I added my birthday wishes to my beautiful Aunt Pat, saying that when I was a boy of five on one of our after school visits to my grandparent’s house she taught me to bop to American Bandstand playing in the living room. It is one of the most vivid and exciting memories of my childhood.

Thank you Aunt Pat and again, “Many happy returns!”

Your friend, fellow traveler, and my beautiful Aunt Pat’s adoring nephew,

David James White