Patti Jeanne Serry Longbrake Hendrickson was born in Denver CO on January 18, 1927. Her family (parents Don and Thelma Serry and brother Donald Serry) moved to Kitsap County in 1932. She attended a 1-room schoolhouse in Holly where she was the only 1st grader. The family’s cabin was moved to Hartford Ave. in Bremerton on the back of her father’s logging truck where he eventually built the home where Patti grew up and her family gathered for 65 more years.
She attended Hillcrest Elementary and Bremerton High where she was active in student government, vaudeville and writing for the Wildcat Lair, for which she once interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt. She graduated BHS Class of 1944. After a year at University of WA she attended Idaho State University, where she met Mark Longbrake and married in 1949. They moved back to Silverdale in 1954. For 21 years she focused on raising their 4 children, many of those years with foster children and “extra kids” in the mix.
After a divorce she found love again with Ray Hendrickson, happily married 31 years until his death in 2001. Together they were active in the LDS Church in Bremerton and Silverdale, and after her retirement in 1983 traveling full-time across the US and Canada.
Her main passion was always family, but Patti also had a real love for books and reading. She shared this with students working as a Library Aide at Brownsville and Tracyton Elementaries and Fairview Junior High through the 1970s. Her silly sense of humor and love of words meant even the family’s Christmas letters were often written in doggerel verse. During her retirement years she entered contests for commercial jingles and slogans, winning odd little prizes for many.
She loved to dance. She and Mark were active in Happy Hoppers for years, and she and Ray taught line dancing at Thousand Trails campgrounds they enjoyed during retirement years, where she often became Activities Coordinator. She was active in PTA on Local and Council levels as well as League of Women Voters. Another passion was genealogy: in addition to discovering her own family’s lineage, she enjoyed sharing and teaching others about it. She had a green thumb, raising extensive vegetable gardens and a jungle of houseplants. Her children all gained a lifelong love of gardening and canning.
Patti loved the open road and her children all have happy memories of family road trips and impromptu adventure rides. After retirement, traveling across country with Ray in their RV was heaven for her. After nearly 20 years of nomadic life they settled in DuPont where she could be close to family, and it was there she gained even more beloved extended “family” with the DuPont LDS community. She especially loved her home and friends there and was able to stay until 2018 when she entered Memory Care. This last year was especially difficult for those in care facilities, but Patti hung on through a year of quarantine until she could hug and kiss her kids again and be reassured everyone was happy. Soon after that she passed quietly in her sleep, family by her side.
Patti is survived by her 4 children Peggy (& Mark) Reece, Mark (& Susie) Longbrake, Mary (& Jim) Ricco, Beth Hendrickson (& Joe Schenck), 9 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, and many dear friends she considered to be family.
She will be laid to rest at Miller Woodlawn Cemetery in Bremerton. Due to quarantine restrictions, no formal service will be held, but the family cherishes your memories of Patti shared via cards, calls and electronic messages.
In lieu of flowers or donations, the family requests that you might plant a flower, seeds, maybe even a tree: something that might make you and passers-by smile seeing it in the future.
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