Patricia Pinson Reese of Seattle, Washington, died Saturday, June 15, of natural causes, at Kline Galland Home. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, November 27, 1927, she was approaching her ninety-seventh birthday, and over seventy years of residence in her beloved city of Seattle.
Pat, as she liked to be known, was born and raised in Nashville, growing up as the youngest of four children on Sweetbriar Avenue in Nashville’s West End neighborhood. Her father, William Wallace Pinson, was an architect, and her mother, Marguerite Barker Pinson, a homemaker with one of the first Montessori School certificates in the country. She had two older sisters, Peggy and Jean, and an older brother, Bill. Her early years were shaped by living through the Great Depression and by the early death of her father.
Her mother had to find work to support the family, and relatives became a needed support system. Her Grandmama Pinson, whose love of language, stories, games, and riddles kindled Pat’s imagination and developed her love of words and language, and her ever-present humor.
After high school, Pat attended Peabody College in Nashville on scholarship, where she graduated with a degree in Languages. She was then set on her path as a teacher of Spanish and ESL in the public schools of Seattle, teaching for 37 years at Eckstein Junior High School and Roosevelt High School until her retirement in 1992.
But those are just the facts. Pat’s life was extraordinary for her times. At age 22, with her new Bachelor’s degree in hand, Pat stepped out of her comfort zone and took her first teaching job at a small town in Oklahoma for two years. It was a challenging environment, but she persevered, finished the contract, and returned to Nashville to get her Master’s degree, then went to Mexico City to study Spanish. Then, to her delight, an offer from Seattle public schools materialized, and off she set on a cross country rail trip.
Stepping off the train in Seattle, she wrote, “I had one sensation I had in Oklahoma, only that one was somehow scary, and this one, for some reason, somehow was exhilarating! Was it the air? The trees? The smiles on peoples’ faces? Maybe the time of day? All of the above, I decided later! And now Seattle!”
So Seattle became her home of choice and love. She met Norm Reese, an intellectual zori-wearing, houseboat-living Boeing worker. They married and lived on a creaky, charming houseboat on Lake Washington. Pat had taken up basket-weaving and she and Norm were among the early renters of a stall at Pike Place Market, selling baskets with other artists on Saturdays and enjoying coffee at Starbucks in the mid-50’s through early 60’s.
She went on to write, with her friend Wilma Ziegler, a comprehensive manual for making baskets using native materials from the Pacific Northwest, titled ‘Grounds For Gathering: Basketry Plants West of the Cascades,’ which continues to sell copies. She was a long time member of the Northwest Basket Weavers, for which she conducted and participated in many workshops celebrating the joy of basket making.
When she and Norm divorced after 12 years, she described herself as “happy, very happy” and decided to turn her home on Capitol Hill into a bed and breakfast. She had many repeat visitors who admired her homemade muffins and advice on sightseeing in Seattle.
Whether teaching, basketmaking, or practicing her enviable Master Gardner skills in her Seattle backyard, her love of cats was the thread that bound all phases of her life. She was devoted to her cats, stray or shelter, one at a time, for her 70 years in Seattle. She created a “Cat-A-Log” of all her cats, photos and stories about all of them, even into her retirement home life. Her last cat, Bernie, had many years on him when she took him in; she hoped he would outlive her, but she saw him through and mourned his passing.
Once asked to introduce herself when she took up residence at Ida Culver Ravenna retirement home, by listing five things she would want her best friend to know about her, she wrote:
“I like coffee with cream and sugar. I’m from Tennessee. I like cats and enjoy gardening. I like to play games. I am an advocate for others and quick to help those in need.”
This short list captures her essence. She excelled at Scrabble and the New York Times crossword; she developed deep friendships with neighbors, fellow basketmakers, and volunteers at Northwest Harvest, where she volunteered her time and donated throughout her years in Seattle.
She is remembered fondly by numerous nieces and nephews scattered throughout the country, and by her close circle of friends and neighbors who remained steadfast through her final days in her beloved chosen home of Seattle. She will certainly be missed. Rest in peace and love, dear Patricia Pinson Reese.