Edie grew up in West Hartford and graduated from Central Connecticut State University. She began her teaching career in West Hartford. She met the Rev. Robert Place Patterson in 1955 and they married a year later, moving to Massachusetts where Edie taught in Watertown schools until she became pregnant with their first child. They lived in Rockport, Mass., and Bloomfield Hills, Mich., until settling in Baltimore, Md., where they lived for 34 years before they moved to Topsham to be close to their daughters and summer home on Kezar Lake in Lovell.
When Edie returned to teaching after the birth of her fourth child, she trained to teach children with dyslexia, a then little-known learning disorder. She designed the curriculum for first-graders at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Md., and went on to design the curricula and teach the 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades. She continued to teach 5th grade until her retirement in 1992. She took great pride in the accomplishments of “her boys.”
In their travels, which included South Africa, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Israel, Edie and her husband met with Golda Meir and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu. As momentous as these meeting were, Edie took equal joy in connecting with everyone who cared for her in recent years. She would relay news about their lives to her family and took particular joy in welcoming new life, always keeping baby gifts on hand.
Edie had a wonderful sense of humor and loved the softness of well-washed cotton sheets, always insisted on real butter and relished her bowls of ice cream, especially peppermint stick and moose tracks.
She is survived by her husband of nearly 57 years; daughter Anne Harrison Patterson of Southwest Harbor; daughter Elizabeth Patterson Quinlan (and husband Michael) of Portland; son David Melcher Patterson (and wife Liz) of Ellicott City, Md.; sister Susan Melcher Brandes; and several nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her much cherished grandchildren, Ben, Erin, Andrew, Peter, James and Will.
She is pre-deceased by her son James Stanwood Patterson and her brother, William Procter Melcher.
A memorial service was held today, Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 27 Pleasant St., Brunswick.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to: Highlands Resident Assistance Fund, 30 Governors Way, Topsham, ME 04086; or Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, 84A Union St., Brunswick ME 04011 (www.mchpp.org).
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