Mary “Annette” Patterson, resident of Pullman, Wash., passed away Saturday morning, June 17, 2017 at Regency Senior Living. She was 92.

Annette was born May 3, 1925 in Warsaw to Paul and Dorothy Rizer Patterson. She grew up in Bourbon and graduated from high school there in 1943. Annette was a very gifted and talented musician and she played clarinet and piano and sang in the church choir. She was also a member of the Bourbon High School Marching Band. She went on to attend Indiana University on a City Service Scholarship and performed in the Indiana University marching band there as well. She married her high school sweetheart, Max E. Patterson on July 11, 1943, and they held each other’s hands until her passing.

During the war years, Annette and Max lived apart some times, but together in Jacksonville, Fla. and San Diego, Calif. Later on the GI bill while Max was at Purdue University they made their home in Lafayette where Annette worked as a secretary in the Department of Horticulture. In 1949 they moved to Geneva, N.Y. and she worked at the Ag Experiment Station for Cornell University, while Max earned an MS degree. Max and Annette returned to Lafayette and Purdue for five years while Max pursued his Ph.D. before moving to Pullman, Wash. in 1958. They’ve lived in Pullman for the last 60 years.

Annette worked as a statistician for the USDA Wheat Breeding Laboratory in Pullman for nearly twenty years, retiring in 1984. She continued her passion for music learning and performing the recorder and cello, sang in the choir and was an avid reader of books. She enjoyed sewing and knitting and Annette and Max traveled extensively together and with friends. She was an active member of the Pullman Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Women’s Circle, DAR, PEO, and the Ingleside Book Club.

Annette is survived by her husband of 73 years, Max Patterson, in Pullman; two children, Celeste Shaw and her husband John of Moscow, Idaho; and Paul Patterson and wife Nüket of State College, Penn.; two grandchildren, Kevin Patterson of Santa Monica, Calif. and Cameron Patterson of State College, Penn.; and by her sister, C. Pauline Becknell of Bourbon.

She was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, mother and grandmother. Her family meant so much to her that she and Max traveled frequently to see family and friends, and to State College, Penn. to watch her grandchildren, Kevin and Cameron grow up. She is greatly loved and will be sorely missed by her family and friends. A gathering of friends and family and a time of remembrance was held Wednesday, June 21, at Kimball Funeral Home in Pullman, Washington. Concluding Services will be held Saturday, June 24 at the Bourbon First United Methodist Church 204 N. Washington St., Bourbon and she will be laid to rest in the Sandridge Cemetery there.