Floy Patton

Mrs. Floy King Patton, a life-long resident of Brownsville, TN died Monday, May 18, 2015 at Sugar Creek Retirement Center. She was 104 years old. Born in 1911 to Floy King and Joseph Currie Dickinson, she was the first grandchild in a loving extended family whose members were descendants of early Haywood County settlers. As a child, she enjoyed the services and activities of the First Presbyterian Church, riding her pony, swimming in the Hatchie River, camping at Tabernacle, and playing with cousins and neighbors who became her lifelong friends. In high school she shone as an athlete, enjoying tennis and starring on the girl's basketball team. She enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1929 but transferred, after a year, to Memphis State, where she again played basketball for a coach who admired her speed and deemed her "as agile as a boy." With a provisional teaching certificate in hand, she became a teacher and principal of a one-room school in the Rudolph community where she worked for several years during the Depression. In 1935, she married William L. Patton and, together, they raised their two children, Bill and Betty. She continued teaching, as a substitute, in Brownsville City Schools. She was a faithful member of First Presbyterian Church and a founding member of the Third Review Club. She was known as an enthusiastic reader, a strong athlete, an avid gardener, a challenging bridge player, a welcoming hostess, and a fine cook. She was preceded in death by her parents, by her brother Joseph Dickinson, and by her husband. Surviving her are her son Bill and his wife Kay; her daughter Betty Patton Hollow; grandchildren Holly Patton Beineman and Ann and Katherine Patton; Patton, Elizabeth, and Joseph Hollow; and great grandchildren Alexandra and Carson Beineman, John Hollow, Alice and William Dawson-Hollow, and Carl and Susannah Hollow. Graveside Services will be conducted at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Oakwood Cemetery in Brownsville, TN. Memorials may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Brownsville, 109 W. College St., Brownsville, TN 38012.