Patricia Rushing

Patricia Ann Rushing, 79, and known affectionately by all as Patsy, took her leave of our world at ten o'clock on Thursday morning, June 26, 2014, two weeks after celebrating her 79th birthday and nearly three precious years after being diagnosed with leukemia. She was a deeply treasured wife, mother, sister, grandmother, cousin, aunt, mentor and friend to a great many people. Patsy was humble, smart and generous. She loved her family, her friends and her community. She played the piano, loved cold leftover cheese pizza, and Friday night spaghetti dinners by candlelight. She made lists, could listen to classical music played on WSMC for hours, used bleach on everything, loved all animals (especially her dogs), and wore pet hair like a chic accessory. She adored the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and their people, where she spent many years and vacations in the cabin she built with her mother in 1957. She was an avid bird watcher, planted flowers and tried every recipe in the Apple A Day Cookbook. Patsy truly loved people all of them, and without judgment; she loved to talk to them, care for them, feed them, dote on them, make sure they ate enough, took their medicine and called their mothers. It is part of what made her life-long career in nursing so outstanding, and why she was so loved and will be so deeply missed by so many. One of Patsy's most iconic personal traits was her laugh; a high and hearty huh-hoooo that she used copiously, with the power to lighten any mood and bring a smile to your own face to see her so tickled. Her laugh, in fact was such a part of her, that it was the last sound she ever made while she lived. Patsy was born and raised in Madison, Tenn., where she spent her youth and college years, living in the same home and attending the same school until her graduation and marriage at the age of 23. Patsy wed her husband of 56 years, Jan Rushing, in 1958 in Fletcher, N.C. Together they had two children, Tami and Tim, and years later, their respective grandchildren, Summer and Jessica. Together, she and Jan moved around the country several times serving as hospital administrators from Georgia to California to Massachusetts to Chattanooga, where she taught clinical nursing at Southern Adventist University. Patsy opened a small craft shop in the 1970's called the Calico Patch, where her mother Teckla and daughter Tami would help produce handmade goods. Later, the family opened Reflections Gallery and Framing, which is still in operation as a three generation family business today. In 1984 Patsy and Jan began looking for a new home; Jan said that he would like to have a house on the lake, Patsy wanted to live on the mountain, so, as Jan says, they compromised and moved up on the mountain in Collegedale, where they have lived for the last 30 years, surrounded by their family and friends and an ever changing cast of characters for Sabbath lunch. Family Visitation will be July 6 in the Collegedale Seventh Day Adventist Church main atrium from 2-3 p.m., and memorial service will follow at 3 p.m. in the church sanctuary. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions to be made to the Teckla Wilson Charitable Trust, 2810 Walker Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421. The trust has been established to promote the health and welfare of Southern Appalachian Mountain communities, such as the Roan Mtn., community which Patsy held so dear. Visit www.heritagefh.com to share words of comfort with the family. Arrangements by Heritage Funeral Home & Cremation Services, East Brainerd Road.