Marion Patterson Ridgeway Fuller

 United States

  • Date Of Birth: anuary 9, 1920
  • Date Of Death: November 18, 2020
  • Spouse: Henry L. “Hank” Fuller
  • Children: Henry L. Fuller, Jr., Richard Ridgeway Fuller
  • City: Columbia
  • State: South Carolina

Marion Patterson Ridgeway (Pat) Fuller was born on January 6, 1920 in Columbia, SC, and died on November 18, 2020 in Lawrenceville, GA at the age of 100 years.

She was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-eight years, Henry L. “Hank” Fuller; her parents, Erwin T. Ridgeway and Marion Patterson Ridgeway of Columbia/Lake Murray, South Carolina; her brother, Erwin T. “Sonny” Ridgeway, Jr; and sister-in-law, Edith Murphy “Deta” Ridgeway of Harkers Island, NC.

Mrs. Ridgeway is survived by her son, Henry L. Fuller, Jr. and daughter-in-law, Teri Kirk Fuller of Lawrenceville, GA; son, Richard Ridgeway Fuller and daughter-in-law, Candy Kern Fuller of Anderson, SC; grandchildren, Brett Austin Fuller and Henry Kirk Fuller; and great grandchildren, Henry Harrison Fuller and William Coston Fuller.

Pat graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1941 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Soon after graduation she began teaching English and French at a high school in Columbia. She met her future husband, Henry L. (Hank) Fuller, a Second Lieutenant in the Army stationed at Fort Jackson, in January of 1942. On August 1st of that year he proposed to her and she accepted. After serving his country in WWII, they were married on January 4th, 1946.

Pat and Hank lived in Athens, GA for over fifty years where Hank was a professor and research scientist at UGA. Pat loved to travel and directed tours for groups to all parts of the world. She loved her family’s summer home in the North Carolina mountains and said on many occasions that Little Switzerland was the most wonderful place she had ever been.

Pat was an excellent gardener. She enjoyed growing and sharing her vegetable and beautiful flowers with friends and neighbors. Like her mother who was an accomplished portrait painter, she had an appreciation for art and was fond of painting flowers and mountain landscapes. She had a passion for birds too, and reckoned that feeding all the many birds that visit the mountains was a nearly full time job. She was a very good cook, she loved to entertain and enjoyed a healthy, active social life with her friends.