Lynette Pate

1953 - 2025

Lynette Pate
11/02/1953 - 05/05/2025
Mary Lynette Jackson Pate of Boise, Idaho, and Houston died unexpectedly May 5, 2025, from a sudden cardiac arrest. She was 71 years old.
Lynette graduated from Richard King High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1971, and became a licensed vocational (practical) nurse. She continued her education as a registered nurse, graduating cum laude from Houston Baptist University with a bachelor of science degree in nursing.
While there, she was invited to sit on the steering committee to establish a branch of Sigma Theta Tau, the National Nurses Honor Society, of which she became a charter member. She was an endowed scholar.
Much of her nursing career was spent at Hermann Hospital; she met her husband, Dr. David Pate, while working in the surgical intensive care unit and he was a student at Rice University. After dating for three years, they were married Sept. 13, 1980, at South Main Baptist Church in Houston by Rev. Richard Stafford; their brothers, both graduates of Southwestern Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, assisted with the ceremony. At the time of her death, the couple had been married for nearly 45 years.
Lynette was a fifth-generation Texan; she never thought she would ever leave Texas. But when a position became available for her husband at St. Luke's Health System in Idaho, Boise became her second home. The couple's two daughters and their husbands followed and all the grandchildren were born at St. Luke's in Boise, Idaho.
Lynette began her volunteer activities with the Red Cross when she was in the fourth grade. She became certified as a Red Cross nurse while attending HBU and continued to volunteer with the organization. As a volunteer for Houston Public Schools, she raised thousands of dollars for public education. Lynette and her mother-in-law, Charlene, volunteered for many Children's Museum of Houston events and more recently, the Children's Discovery Center of Sugarland, Texas.
Lynette lived her life fully and unabashedly. She embraced color, relished travel and took interest and joy from the people of the world and their doings. She felt her emotions deeply, and was an indomitable force in support of her husband who was her best friend, her dozens of friends across the country and her family.
She is survived by her beloved husband, David Charles Pate, MD, JD, past president and CEO of St. Luke's Health System in Idaho; daughter Laurie Brooke Pate Martin and her husband, Clifton Wiley Martin Sr., and four grandsons, David Wiley Martin, James Jackson Martin, Clifton Wiley Martin, Jr. and Dean Clayton Martin; daughter Lindsey Karen Pate, granddaughter Presley June Yeaman and Presley's father, Jason Yeaman; her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Leonard Jackson and Catherine Jackson, of Ft. Worth, Texas; her brother-in-law, Gary Pate, and his wife Debbie Pate of Houston; beloved sister-in-law, Jennifer Pate, MD, of Houston; and mother-in-law, Charlene Pate of Sugarland, Texas; as well as numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents, Leonard Clark Jackson Jr. and Phyllis June Smith Jackson of Nocona, Texas, nephew Clark Davison and her much-loved father-in-law, James Leonard Pate, former president and CEO of Pennzoil, of Houston.
Lynette's favorite quote, words by which she lived her life, come from "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom:
Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.
Lynette had many close friends that she truly loved, and she will be missed. A celebration of her life will be held in Boise.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the causes that Lynette was passionate about and contributed to, including the TRICA program in Boise, St. Luke's Health System's breast care services, the Fort Bend Children's Discovery Center in Sugarland, Texas, or the charity of your choice.