Patricia Ann Pullen-Jones Dec. 31, 1943 – Aug. 1, 2015

Patricia Ann Pullen-Jones died peacefully from multiple sclerosis on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015 in Portland, in her home, surrounded by her children. She was 71 years old.

Patricia Lyman was born on Dec. 31, 1943 in Bozeman, Mont., to John Williamson Lyman and Katherine Ivannie Moore. She attended the St. Paul School for Girls in Walla Walla, Wash., and Wallowa High School in Wallowa, where she was accomplished in theater, music, Rainbow Girls, baton twirling and reporting for the school newspaper. She married her high school sweetheart, Charles Maynard Pullen in 1962 and supported him through veterinary school as he pursued officer training in the army, moving across the country to Fort Collins, Colo., Fort Meade, Md., and later to Davis, Calif., and Glendale, Ariz. After 11 years, the marriage ended in divorce. Pat was married two more times, to John Clark, then to Randolph Jones, and lived in several places including Westlake Village, Calif., Gilbert, Ariz., and Rexburg, Idaho.

Pat spent much of her life as a single mother, devoting herself to working and raising her children. She was a scholar and a secretary, an entrepreneur and a visionary, a self-taught graphic designer, a do-it-yourselfer, a romantic, a poet. She had the ability to make a home wherever she landed and the talent to do it well. She could replace the motherboard on a computer as easily as she could reupholster a chair or rewire an electrical circuit.

Pat waged a life-long battle with MS. Though she was diagnosed at the age of 50, neurological testing showed her first exacerbation occurred when she was just 15 years old. She learned to live with chronic pain and the disabling limitations that progressed with her disease, consistently prevailing over the challenges she faced and garnering the admiration of all who loved her. She will be missed greatly, but remembered dearly as a mother, sister and friend, full of life and attitude and passion.

She is survived by her children, Lisa Pullen-Kent and husband, Steven, of Columbia, Mo., Stephen Pullen and wife, Peggy, of Suffolk, Va., Heidi Pullen-Rabbat of Portland, and Sarah Jones and partner, Seth Collins, of Phoenix, Ariz.; her grandchildren, Melissa and Jeremy Buehner, Charles, Bronson, Isabella and Joseph Pullen, Sydney and Haley Kent, Gabriel Rabbat and Holden Collins; and great-grandchild Ashton Buehner; her sisters, Katherine Gwen Lyman of Keizer, and Dee Njuguna of Coos Bay, and her nephew Njuguna Gitau of Seattle, Wash., and nieces Randee McClung and Cierra Lowery, both of Tyler, Texas.

A Celebration of Life was held on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, at the home of Pat’s daughter, Heidi, in Portland. In her death, she was mourned, in her victory over death, she was revered, and in our hearts she will remain.