Obituary of Patricia Anne Lemon

Patricia Anne Dickerson Lemon (83) died September 7, 2023 at her nursing home, Heritage Hall, in Leesburg, Virginia. 

Patricia was born in Claremore, Oklahoma, on January 19, 1940, to Carrie Barefoot Dickerson and C. Robert Dickerson of Claremore, OK. She attended Claremore High School, and won a National Merit Scholarship to Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA, having been offered a place at every one of the Seven Sisters Colleges. At Harvard, she met Edward Lemon, and after a year of courtship, they married in 1958 in Claremore and had two children, Signe and Ted. Patricia loved being a mother.

At Harvard/Radcliffe, Patricia worked as a laboratory assistant to Nobel Laureate Dr. Georg von Bekesy in Cambridge, a period in her life she always remembered fondly and proudly. She graduated in 1962, and then worked in academics for many years, especially at Northfield Mt. Hermon School. She earned an M.Ed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1983.  

She adored her students, most of whom came from Asia. Many went on to study at prestigious colleges and Universities and do amazing things because of their hard work and Patricia's expert attention to their language skills. They called her Halmeoni, Korean for Grandmother, which she loved.

She lived in Northfield MA and other rural Massachusetts towns, eventually winding up in Warwick, a town Patricia loved and where she made many friends. She served as a Selectboard (Town Council) member in Warwick for almost a decade, retiring after her illness made it impossible for her to travel to meetings. She traveled widely, and loved languages. Special visits to Munich, Naples, Venice, Salzburg and Rome, as well as Seoul, South Korea and Kauai, Hawaii were some of the most important, particularly when she got to see her former students.  She always yearned for Warwick and Claremore, her two favorite places on earth.

She moved to Virginia to be near her daughter, living at Herndon Harbor House where she made cherished friends and enjoyed the Town amenities, especially the Farmer's Market, Library and Community Center. She volunteered with Kids R First and helped with political campaigns. She proudly voted in every election. 

She is survived by Edward Lemon, her husband of 65 years, of Warwick MA, daughter Signe Friedrichs and husband Paul, of Herndon, VA, son Ted and wife Andrea, of Brattleboro, VT and many nieces and nephews and cousins, including niece, Sandra Patterson (David) daughter of her beloved sister Florence, Melissa Price (Justin) and JJ Dickerson (Erin), children of her beloved brother Jimmy, all of Claremore OK. She is also survived by her beloved bonus daughter, Tina Cobblah, and bonus granddaughter, Tia Tuffour. She is preceded in death by much loved sisters Florence and Mary, and dear brother Jimmy.

She will be buried in Sageeyah, OK, in the family plot. A celebration of her life will be held in Warwick later this year.

Donations in Patricia Dickerson Lemon's name can be made to the Indian Women's Pocohontas Club, of which she was a member her entire life. 

 

 

"Speak kind words and you will hear kind echos"

"We are the Indian Women's Pocahontas Club. We love our nations stories and the histories of our clans. Whether they be sung or spoken, we treasure our tribal legends, the meeting of our group and all our Indian tokens. The pride of our race we will forever cherish, that its history and legends will not perish. 

For ancient pride of race, this torch we pass to those who come our place to take."

The Pocahontas Club has come a long way since its inception in 1899. Little did those fine Cherokee leaders in one of the oldest communities of the Indian Territory think they were organizing what is perhaps the oldest club of the state. But the ideals of study and service of that small group of intelligent and cultured girls from the Female Seminary have endured. 

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The neighborly work of the Pocahontas members continues in the club's objectives of Indian welfare and education. Today the club work is done by a group of dedicated women who put little emphasis on the social aspect. 

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Those first Pocahontas members would be pleased and proud of knowing that their club, organized for fun, is serving and preserving the past for the future.    

 

“We are the caretakers of our culture, our heritage and our communities”