Patricia Ann Reese, 79, died May 27, 2016 at Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Pat was born to Margaret Stone Reese and Andrew Jackson “Andy” Reese, Sr., legendary pioneer Tupelo families on March 9, 1937. Her father, Andy Reese, Sr., played professional baseball with the New York Yankees and one of the ballparks at Joyner St. City Park bears his name. She was a star athlete at the Tupelo Public Schools and, by the time she graduated from Tupelo High School, she had become an outstanding basketball player and State Tennis Champion. Pat was close friends at THS with Mitzi Bristow Moore and Pat Rogers Langston and they all enrolled as freshman at Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) where they grew their friendships with Patricia graduating cum laude and served as a Dorm Monitor. Coach Reese later received a MA degree in Physical Education from Florida State University. She served in the Red Cross in Korea and later worked with the Red Cross and The YWCA in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1965, she began her work with the Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida) school system retiring in 1998. She was a celebrated coach in the Jacksonville area and took her 1976 girls’ basketball team to the first Florida State Girls Championship, where they won it all. She loved all sports, thrived on competition, was an excellent mentor to her players and revered by all who knew her. Pat grew up an active member of the First United Methodist Church in Tupelo and loved returning to her home State of Mississippi throughout the years, not so much at Christmas, but often in the middle of the summer. She would load her old van up replete with Christmas Tree and gifts, an see her local family and friends. Being extraordinarily athletic, she enjoyed hiking, camping, the beautiful mountain surroundings of her cabin near Stecoah, North Carolina, swimming, the beaches of the Atlantic, being a counselor at Camp DeSoto, rescuing and loving all animals especially cats and dogs and being a consummate friend and Aunt. Love in all its Glory and Grace is Pat’s legacy to us all.
A graveside memorial service will be held at 10:30 AM Saturday, July 23, 2016 at the Reese/Stone family plot at Glenwood Cemetery in Tupelo with family friend, Rep. Steve Holland and Renna Temple speaking. Burial will follow. Visitation will be immediately after the service at the gravesite and later at a reception at Harvey’s Restaurant in Tupelo. Holland Funeral Directors is honored to share this time with family and friends.
Those remaining family members include her special friend, Lucy P. Stewart; sister-in-law, Dottie Reese; niece, Linda Reese Lightsey; and nephews, Dennis Reese and Andy Reese and their families; a host of friends everywhere and her furry friends, Beautiful Joe, Bootsie and Kit Kat Reese. She was preceded in death by her parents, Andy, Sr. and Margaret Reese and her beloved brother, famed Mississippi Associated Press writer Andy Reese, Jr.
Memorials may be made to the Tupelo/Lee Humane Society, P. O. Box 1184, Tupelo, MS 38802.
