Geneva Helen Abbott was born to VIrginia (Virgie) (née Hawkins) and Fred(erick?) Abbott on February 21, 1916 in Commerce, Scott county, MO - a town on the Mississippi River where her Hawkins ancestors had settled three generations earlier.

When G was 2 years old, her parents moved the family - which included Dorothy, G's older sister - to St. Louis. G grew up in the Maryland Avenue neighborhood a few blocks east of Forest Park. Eventually she attended Sunday school at Giddings-Boyle Presbyterian Church.

Involvement with the youth at Giddings-Boyle under Rev. O. Wright led to Geneva's meeting Donald S. Patterson. They married July 15, 1939 - driving to Kansas City to be married by Rev. Wright at his house where he'd moved the previous year.

G and Don lived in St. Louis until January 1980, when they moved to the villa on South Sea Pines Drive, Sea Pines Plantation, Hilton Head Island, SC, that they had bought in 1973. A few years later, they moved to a house, also in Sea Pines.

In October 2002, G and Don moved into Conway and Betty Kuhlmann's former house in Vero Beach, FL. Since April-May 2009, their home has been with Pat, near Deltaville, in Middlesex county, Virginia.

Geneva passed away peacefully in her sleep about 7:54 pm on Saturday, March 19, 2011, while Don was napping at her side. They were married 71 years, and she had made it to her 95th birthday - longevity surpassed in her family only by her cousin Esther. Rest in peace.