Elizabeth Bokop Patterson, 97, a former longtime Baker City resident, died Oct. 5, 2006, at the Wallowa Valley Care Center.
Her memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 2130 Second St. Private interment of her cremains will be at Mount Hope Cemetery.
Mrs. Patterson was born on June 30, 1909, at New York City to Federick and Augusta Bokop of Defiance, Ohio, where she grew up. She attended Western College at Oxford, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1931 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education.
She was invited to visit friends in Baker City where she met and married Franklin W. “Bill” Patterson in 1938. He was a lifelong Baker City resident. He died on March 3, 1983.
Mrs. Patterson worked for T.B. Health Association, later called the American Lung Association, and was a substitute teacher while raising her children. She became a full-time teacher in Latin and English at Baker High School, where she worked until her retirement in 1971.
Mrs. Patterson was recognized in 1991 as the “Legacy Woman of the Year” by the Baker County Chamber of Commerce for her half century of work in Baker County. Among her many activities, she was involved with the American Field Service Program, which sponsored foreign exchange students in Baker City. One student, Rankine from Whitley Bay, North Umberland, England, lived with the Patterson family in 1961.
She also supported Community Concert Association, where she aggressively sold substantial annual memberships each year. Other activities included the American Association of University Women, at the local and state level; Oregon Trail Regional Museum; the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center; St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church where she was an active member for more than 60 years; and the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon.
She moved to Joseph in 1998 where she could be closer to her daughters and family and to enjoy the cabin at Wallowa Lake.
Survivors include her three children, William Robert “Bob” Patterson and his wife, Marvel, of Chandler, Ariz., John Frederick Patterson of Walla Walla, Wash., and Charlotte Williams of Joseph; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church or St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church through the Bollman Funeral Home, 315 W. Main St., Enterprise, OR 97828.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, October 10, 2006
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor
