Patricia L. Songer

Patricia Lou Songer, known to childhood friends as “Patty Lou ’’ was born November 11, 1930. She died of natural causes on October 28, 2021 at a retirement home in Eugene, Oregon.

Patricia was born and raised in Anderson, Indiana to Ruth and John (Bill) Brannon. She was the oldest of her sisters Sandra, Sally, and Karen.

Pat fell head over heels in love with the dashing sailor Jack Songer, who winked at her as she sang in the church choir. They married and traveled the world then settled first in Staunton, Virginia and finally in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They raised four children to be a pilot, an artist, a professor, and a dedicated University of New Mexico employee and Lobo fan.

Pat loved playing bridge, watching Jeopardy, reading biographies, and laughing with her many friends. She had the long fingers of a skilled pianist (and a notso-skilled autoharpist), and the mean backhand of a woman who could beat her granddaughter at tennis well into her 70s.

She joined Jack for hikes along trails near their New Mexico home in the Sandia foothills, and for 20 years, until Jack’s death in 2005, they sat together and watched afternoon lightning storms, sipping Manhattans and snacking on Planter’s Peanuts.

From exploring the United States in a pop-up trailer to setting off on foot across London without a map, Pat loved adventures. She recognized life for the adventure it was. In her late 70s, she set off on Safari in Tanzania, where she grabbed a baboon by its tail to keep it from climbing in their Jeep.

Pat dearly loved her friends; those she had known since she was three, and those she met along the way. Her friends were her light, her joy, and her homebase. When life dealt its blows, blows that came more often and brutally than they should, her friends were her support and her lifeline.

She was preceded in death by her husband Jack and her children Polly, Jeff, and Kim. She is survived by her daughter Lynn, grandchildren: Edward, Katherine and Brannon, great grandson Eddie, daughter-in-law Kaye, a niece, two nephews and many dear friends. Pat will be interred in the National Cemetery in Santa Fe New Mexico with Jack and near Jeff and Polly, also in the National Cemetery.

Donations in Pat’s memory can be made to your local hospice. Our family is so very grateful for the wonderful care and great kindness from the staff at Farmington Square and Cascade Hospice.