She attended Pease Elementary School, University Jr. High (UJH), and the original Austin High School, where she was a Red Jacket. She graduated in 1954. Pat continued to stay in Austin and attended the University of Texas. She pledged Alpha Delta Pi sorority and began her love for the Longhorn football team. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College was her school of choice for her master’s degree.
Teaching was her niche. She loved her elementary age students and they loved her. She could tell stories all day about her teaching experiences and always did it with such fondness for her students. She began her teaching career in Flour Bluff near Corpus Christi before moving back to Austin where she taught at Brooke, Sims, Joslin, Doss and Sunset Valley before retiring.
Pat is preceded in death by her parents Howard Dean Dodgen and Lorine Tullos Dodgen. She is survived by her younger sister, Sue Dodgen Vasser, her brother-in-law, Rick Vasser and her 2 nieces, Elizabeth Vasser and Sharon Vasser. There are many cousins as well that will miss her sweet smile and enthusiasm for life.
Pat did indeed love life, friends, family, travel, tennis, the Texas Longhorns, and a good party. She was fortunate enough to visit Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and Russia and she did these trips with her best friends and traveling buddies. Most of her trips were with the Flying Longhorns. Pat played some recreational tennis with friends at her homeowner’s association’s tennis courts and that hooked her. She would get up at whatever time necessary to watch the live tennis matches on TV. Her bunco group and bridge group were an important part of her time with friends. She was always up for a game.
A Celebration of Life will be held at a safer time TBD. Pat’s family requests that contributions be gifted to the Assistance League of Austin’s Operation School Bell program in her honor at www.ALaustin.org. She dearly loved being a member of Assistance League after she retired. Providing school children in need with a wardrobe of brand-new outfits for school was a commitment for her. She knew it enhanced their learning and gave them self-esteem.
Pat expressed appreciation to the doctors and nurses at St. David’s Main for their care and support she received while in the hospital.
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