Lasting Memories
Patricia "Patsy" Evans Weiss
Jan. 19, 1923-July 14, 2014
Palo Alto, California
Patricia Miller Evans Weiss, 91, of Palo Alto, California, died on July 14, 2014.
She was born to Colonel R.G. Miller and Dollie Martin in Fort Lewis, Washington, on Jan. 19, 1923. She graduated from the University of North Carolina.
An untiring social activist, she worked in the Settlement Houses in New York City in the 1940s, campaigned with the Farm Workers in California in the 1960s, stood with the Women in Black in the Middle East, wrapped the Pentagon with peace quilts in 1985, traveled on a peace mission to the Soviet Union with the Grandmothers For Peace in May of 1989, and marched against the Iraq war in 2003.
She swam competitively with the Masters into her 80s. She was a creative and caring wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.
She is survived by 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Aug. 5, 2014
Patsy's life so well-lived: She was a true lifelong friend of my mother, Susan Burroughs, and our family. She and my mother met when they both lived in Raleigh, NC back in the 1940's. Even though Patsy moved to Texas, and then California, the faithfulness of her friendship was always a force of nature to us. Patsy's caring ways endeared her to us, and distance just didn't make any difference -- we always felt her presence and interest in our lives. I'll never forget when she and Charlie visited Chapel Hill, NC (our hometown)to attend her college reunion. She made it a fun reunion for us too! I was to take them to the Greensboro airport for an early flight back to California, and they were so patient with me when I got lost! She always kept up with my brother and me and with our children. From the time I was little, each year she sent us a Christmas or Thanksgiving picture card of her family -- way before this became a cultural norm. In fact I'm almost sure she invented this now-entrenched ritual! We started a scrapbook of their family holiday pictures and always enjoyed the creativity shown each year. And she took the "slings and arrows" of life with such grace; never a complaint; always her welcoming smile and voice. I am so thankful to have had her as a role model (even though she would have found a way to compliment ME instead). I grew up in the 1960's and believe very much in the value of social activism (and we tended to think we invented it!). But no, not really! Patsy carried that motivation with her as naturally as breathing. I'll never be able to live up to her incredibly generous and caring spirit, but I must try. Hers is a life well-lived, and her spirit lives on! So I send our love to Todd, Carter, Deborah and Peter (her children that I met when we visited the family in Texas one summer). Just hearing Deborah's voice the other day gives me such comfort -- there was a glimmer of Patsy's voice so I breathed a sigh of relief that indeed, Patsy has left her legacy with Deborah and her extended family and friends. Just think: what love she has left with us. I pray we pass that love on as generously and wonderfully as she did. Thanks be to Patsy for her exuberant life, Sue Burroughs Field & Tommy;& Kelly & Hugh Trout
Aug. 5, 2014
