Patricia Dillon Hall

Born in Kansas, Pat always carried the spirit of the plains and the prairies in her heart. She loved the desolate landscapes of Big Bend, New Mexi- co, and her beloved Black Hills of South Dakota. We will certainly miss her updates on the current temperatures in Rapid City, where she spent many happy years of her childhood with her best friend and sister, Nancy Dillon Craven.

She was a francophile and spoke excellent French, along with a smattering of Spanish and some bad words in Arabic that she picked up during her short time in Morocco.

Pat loved the English language and was a master wordsmith. Her puns were wicked; bawdy jokes and stories delighted her. She also appreciated more elevated language, especially that of Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Anne Lamott, Colum McCann, and Cormac McCarthy.

She and her husband, Bill Hall, shared an appreciation for good food and enjoyed cooking delicious meals for their family and friends around a beautifully set table. She believed in cloth napkins, sterling, real whipped cream, and perfect dark brown gravy.

Pat was a nature lover, a Master Naturalist, and an enthusiastic gardener (native plants only, please). She spent many happy hours in her Dripping Springs courtyard, which was abundant with wild flowers and pollinators.

Photography was an enduring love, and Pat left us with many treasured photographs which will forever be sweet reminders of her. Although she took many of our favorite photos of her grandchildren, she had a particular interest in the faces of strangers she saw on her travels, and some of them are so familiar by now that they almost feel like family.

She was a feminist, a Democrat, Phi Beta Kappa, an introvert, an Epis- copalian, and an alto.

She loved dark chocolate, thick red hair (especially in a braid), Jameson (straight up), pecans in everything, Elton John, Garrison Keillor, rhubarb, old church hymns, tart lemon desserts, the Texas Hill Country, bagpipes, crisp white blouses, expensive shoes (“the uglier the better”) and her Uncle Dave.

Pat taught us to look for the sacred in the ordinary, and counseled against worrying about what we cannot control. Had she had been able to choose her final chapter it certainly would not have been Alzheimer’s. We hope that she knew that we did everything we could to make her decline and passing as comfortable as we possibly could. Although it has been a long goodbye, we are nonetheless heartbroken that we no longer have her among us.

Pat dearly loved her late husband Bill , her daughters Kate Hall Mai (Mark) and Martha Hall Clay (Greg), her son Peter (Molly) , her eight grandchildren, and her sister Nancy and her husband, Clinton Craven. We are all better for having been in her life.

If you would like to make a donation in Pat’s honor, please consider Holy Sprit Episcopal Church in Dripping Springs, Planned Parenthood, or Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

A celebration of Pat’s life will be held in the spring.