Friends Remember
by Jean Craig
As many of you already know, our founding President, Pattie Hamilton, recently passed away. Pattie died Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at the age of 56. She was born Friday, November 15, 1946. A memorial was held at Cochran Funeral Home and was well attended by family, friends, and the community. We will all miss Pattie's brilliant smile, kind heart, and community service. A planned area of the library is being renovated as the Pattie Hamilton Reading Nook for a memorial to this well loved and very great lady. I was going to write a tribute to her in this newsletter, but rather, here are some of Pattie's own words she wrote on January 9, 2002.
Me....How do you condense a life into one page...albeit single-spaced? Family and geographical data are important, of course. Central Kentucky of the late 1940's and early 1950's provided my childhood physical environment; a loving lower middle class family of mother, father, and one sister, plus a multitude of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins provided the values and emotional stability to eventually produce a college educated, happy, and fairly sensible adult. I married my high school sweetheart, gave birth to a daughter and a son only 11 months apart, and sandwiched this in with teaching and pursuing those interests that sporadically arose.
 
From childhood, I knew I was a teacher and I continue to be a teacher. First my dolls, then my playmates were subject to playing school. Four years of liberal arts education prepared me to teach elementary school, or so I thought. One year of teaching first grade in an inner city school in Cincinnati proved to me that a naive girl from Georgetown, Kentucky needed more preparation for the real world of teaching.
 
In subsequent times I have taught fifth grade at the same elementary school which I attended in my hometown, tutored adults in reading, managed a GED preparation center, instructed students of the Bible in a college in Florida. I was privileged to train pastors and teachers in Haiti and countries in Africa during numerous short trips to both locales. I have also taught prospective employees to be dental assistants...a career I embraced in the '70s. My work life has also included managing a Christian bookstore, working part time as a library assistant, and clerking in a jewelry store.
 
Charlie, my husband, has been my best friend since I was fifteen. We have lived in varied locations due to his employment for over 20 years with IBM as a computer programmer. Those sites including Cincinnati, Ohio; Boulder, Colorado; Boca Raton, Florida; and Blairsville, Georgia, have each provided experiences and fostered interests that greatly enriched our lives. Ethnic foods, musical styles, sports, and family activities have waxed and waned in popularity and participation over the years. We have hiked, fished, camped, and enjoyed both the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian chain. We have scuba dived to 110 feet in the waters of the Florida Keys. We have rafted the Snake River in Wyoming. We have eaten ourselves into oblivion in the best restaurants of New Orleans and have taught our children to appreciate the culture and products of diversity.
 
If asked, What do you like to do? How do you spend your free time? I will emphatically reply, "I love to read." Reading is my self-education, reading is my door to a larger world, and reading is my emotional and mental security blanket. Books are my treasures; words are my hobby. This bibliophilism was a gift to me from my father, who allowed a tiny girl to trudge along with him on his weekly trips to the small public library in our hometown. Food is also important to me. I love to experiment with different recipes, and sample assorted menus in restaurants of all types. Charlie and I actually plan vacations around food and the restaurants that offer it.
 
It is certain that those I most love to be around are my husband, children, and two grandchildren. They are lively, smart, entertaining, and loving blessings to me. Friends include the Cultured Honeypots--two women with similar enthusiasms, fellow book-a-holics. I am enjoying my semi-retirement and am pursuing new avenues of self-improvement and creativity such as adjunct teaching at NGT College, aerobics, gardening, and writing.  
 
At age 55, I feel as if my life has just begun.
Created with The Print Shop Web Site Designer.