Patricia Perkins Moore remembered for her service as nurse, homemaker
Patricia Perkins Moore was a committed entertainer, going to great lengths to provide bountiful meals to her friends and always making sure her husband had corned beef and cabbage on his birthday, her son Dave Moore said.
"She was willing to go through those kinds of efforts to serve her community, whether it was her husband's colleagues or her colleagues or just their friends," her son said.
Patricia Ann Perkins Moore of Cypress, Texas, died Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. She was 83.
She was born Oct. 13, 1928, in Lawrenceville, Ill., to Emmett and Eunice Perkins.
She earned a registered nurse certification.
On June 6, 1952, she married Edward Moore at Hamilton Avenue Christian Church in St. Louis.
Mrs. Moore met her husband while both were working at Barnes Hospital, now Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She was a ward secretary, and Edward Moore was an orderly. Dave Moore said his father recalled that the ward secretary was the first person he saw when he went to get patients from her ward, and they playfully teased each other.
Dave Moore said his parents' bond was so strong it survived the building of a house and the remodeling of another.
The couple moved to Columbia when Edward Moore, a minister, returned to school to earn a degree in psychology from MU in the mid-1960s. They raised their children in Columbia.
Mrs. Moore always made sure her garden featured a variety of flowers.
"She was fond of roses and irises," her son said. "She always had mint growing because she liked it in her iced tea and mint juleps."
Mrs. Moore also enjoyed camping with her family and provided for them away from home with her usual care.
“She was as good a camp cook as she was a housekeeper,” Dave Moore said.
Mrs. Moore served as a nurse at University Hospital while living in Columbia in the mental health unit and rheumatology department.
Mrs. Moore's passion for serving continued after her husband retired and returned to the ministry. She supported her husband and his congregation at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Fulton.
The couple moved to Cypress, Texas, where Mrs. Moore served the congregations of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church and The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.
Mrs. Moore is survived by her husband, Edward Moore; a daughter, Susan Newell of Cypress, Texas; two sons, Dave Moore of Cypress, and Randy Moore and his wife, Nina, of Ukiah, Calif.; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 715 E. Carrell St., Tomball, TX 77375.
Memorial donations can be made to the Lighthouse Hospice, 14011 Park Drive, Suite 201, Tomball, TX 77377.
