Patricia Rose Edgerton

Patricia Rose Edgerton died on September 6, 2020 in Santa Barbara, California. She was born in 1924 in Los Angeles, California to her parents Claudine Rose and Floyd Edgerton. She was preceded in death by her parents, and her sister, Jacqueline Edgerton, who died at the age of 4 1/2 in 1918 of whooping cough.

She spent her childhood in Tacoma/Seattle, Washington where numerous cousins still live and with whom she remained in touch as she settled in California for the remainder of her life.

After attending Wellesley College, Columbia University, and Stanford University, and armed with BA and Master Degrees in English Literature as well as a California Teaching Credential, she applied her professional skills to teaching English as a Second Language in the community colleges of the Bay Area. Her sharp intellect and dedication to her ESL students particularly of East Asian origin, led to life-long friendships with them and as a result, beginning in 1973, she traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, spending a year at times teaching in Sri Lanka.

While teaching and upon retirement she journeyed to Petra, Jordan, India, China, Russia, South America, and Canada.

Retiring in Santa Barbara in 2000 she became an observer of the human condition reading books on political discourse and current fiction, and enjoying friendships with fellow book lovers. She became a member of the Santa Barbara Grand Jury, joined the League of Women Voters, and generously supported Phoenix House, the Santa Barbara Humane Society and other animal welfare organizations.
She chose a circumscribed life style of attending the cultural offerings of Santa Barbara, but she, nevertheless, participated in the riches of the nearby extended family of her half-brother, Roger Edgerton of Ventura, and half- sisters, Sylvelin Edgerton of Goleta and Joyce Ball of Santa Ynez, attending their annual family gatherings and exchanging visits.

In the last five years of her life her affairs were continually managed by Sylvelin and Roger patiently responding to her insistence on living in her own home in San Roque. Her family is most grateful to the Visiting Nurses Association Hospice and her two exceptional care-givers, Maria Ornales and Esther Sam-Jackson. She will be interred in the City View Cemetery of Salem, Oregon where her mother and step-father, Wallace Foster, and sister, are buried.