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Patricia Cray Obituary

Name: Service for Patricia Cray
Start: 2023-10-11T17:00:00.000Z
End: 2023-10-11T20:00:00.000Z
Location: Theatre 514

Born in Pittsburgh, PA, the daughter of Thelma Sykes Lane and John Cratty. She passed away peacefully on October 7, 2023, from a fall at home and subsequent complications. A lifelong actress, her first performance at four years old led to a lifelong passion for the theater. She played several prominent roles in National Broadway productions, including "Take Her, She's Mine" and "Streetcar Named Desire." In 1971, she earned a Bachelor's degree from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut while taking a break from Broadway. During this time, she worked as a Field Manager for Reader's Digest in Fairfield, CT, where, as the only female sales manager, earned "Field Manager of the Year" by selling more than all 13 managers combined. As if this was not impressive enough, she was winning Best in Show dog shows with her pedigree Yorkshire Terriers, namely (appropriately), a dog named Stella. After this, she returned to the theater, including Austin Pendelton's "John Gabriel Borkman," from which her son was named. After her son, Gabriel, was born, she returned to Pittsburgh to earn her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law at age 40 before becoming an accomplished law clerk at the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas specializing in Family Law. Over the next 25 years in Pittsburgh, she continued to work onscreen, including projects such as the PA Lottery commercials, "Love and Other Drugs (2010)," "Wonder Boys (2000)," and "The Kill Point (2007)." She moved to Allentown, PA, to be close to her son and daughter-in-law after her Parkinson's diagnosis in 2015, where she remained.

She is survived by her son, John Gabriel Lloyd; daughter-in-law, Kacey Lloyd, and her two grandsons, Huxley and Bodie Lloyd; Great Uncle Ralph Sykes; cousins Bonnie Sykes, and Robert Sykes.

A remembrance will occur Wednesday, October 11th, at Theatre 514 in West Allentown from 5pm to 8pm with remarks around 6pm.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Morning Call on Oct. 10, 2023.

Memories and Condolences
for Patricia Cray

19 Entries

Effe S Simpson

August 7, 2025

I'm so glad I got to "meet" you! You were an inspiration to me when I was putting together our families' family history!! I wasn't able to travel back to Pennsylvania to meet you, but we talked often and wrote often. You were a highlight in my life!!

Your cousin
Effe Sykes Simpson

Charles Eiszler

August 7, 2025

I knew Pat as a high school school classmate. We became friends when we participated in the senior class play. We reconnected at the sixtieth anniversary of our graduation and engaged in thoughtful discussions and reflections by email until her death. She was one of the most intelligent and insightful individuals I have known. I miss her perspective on many issues and her book recommendations especially.

Wallie

May 5, 2024

She is one of those people in my life I will never forget- and I haven´t

Wallie Festa-Hammer

May 5, 2024

I went to school with Pat when Quinnipiac was still a college-I am so sorry I lost touch with her but have thought about her often and had put off writing- and only now have read that she has died- I am sadder than you know- I am so very sorry

Gabe Lloyd

October 19, 2023

Gabe Lloyd

October 19, 2023

Gabe Lloyd

October 19, 2023

I put mom's name in the lights one last time.

Kees van Rooijen

October 14, 2023

I remember Pat, and her then recently born son Gabriel, with love. Very spécial.
Kees

Susan Jannetta

October 13, 2023

Dear Gabriel, I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. I have fond memories of living with the two of you in NYC when you were only six months old. You are all in my prayers.

Mike Tallarico

October 11, 2023

Please accept my deepest condolences.

Pat was one of the first people I met at a boxing program for those of us with Parkinson's.

Rest in peace Pat

Bonnie Sykes

October 10, 2023

I remember that Patty played her organ so well that the neighbors opened their windows to enjoy the music. Love, Uncle Ralph

Conversations around her table, her wonderful sense of humor, and the love that was so evident in everything she did. Blessed Be, Patty. Love, Bon

Dawn

October 10, 2023

Pat has been such a wonderful part of our family´s life. She was kind, thoughtful and so much fun, especially for our son.
Pat will be greatly missed and remembered forever.
Sending love and hugs to Gabe and his family at this very sad time.

Cynthia Spooner

October 10, 2023

I was fortunate to live next door to Pat, having moved to the West End in 2019. We shared our love of gardening, which began a wonderful friendship. Our daily talks about family, Grandchildren and our "pre-Allentown" life filled our time. Pat lived an extraordinary life and I admired her resilience and zest, never letting her diagnosis take over. I will miss her smile that greeted me each day. Rest in peace dear Pat.

Connie Jankowski

October 9, 2023

Rest in peace Pat. It was my pleasure to meet Pat first as a customer at LRoth Salon . We quickly became friends with things in common, love of our family, grandchildren and love of flowers . So happy our lives crossed till we meet again my friend

Barbara Harris

October 9, 2023

I recall Pat driving her cute Nash car through a park near Carrick High School. Over curbs-the poor car.

Charles Eiszler

October 9, 2023

I knew four Patricia´s. I first met her as an attractive and active classmate in the 1959 graduating class of Carrick High School in Pittsburgh. In her senior year, she was an editor of the yearbook, a cheerleader at football and basketball games, and performed the title role, Dolly Levi, in the senior class play - Thornton Wilder´s `The Matchmaker.´ After graduation, I knew Pat as a successful model and actress on Broadway, off Broadway, and in traveling productions through the news media. I especially remember reading of the joy she expressed about the birth of her son Gabriel Lloyd in speaking with a Pittsburgh reporter. Following the 60th CHS reunion of our graduating class, I had a chance to get to know Pat through phone conversations and digital messages. She was a proud grandmother and a courageous battler of the devastating disease which eventually took her from us. During this time I learned a little of a fourth Pat who had returned to Pittsburgh to become a lawyer. I got a glimpse of her sharp analysis skills as we discussed political and social issues. I will always be grateful for her thoughtfulness in recommending and discussing reading which broadened my understanding of the best contemporary literature and her insightful commentary on the political art of Ann Telnaes. I was fortunate to share these small parts of Pat´s life and sensibility and they have enriched my life.

Tracey Dodd

October 9, 2023

Pat and I met in New York which began a forty-two year friendship, principally on telephone, text and email. Gabe had just been born. We met only twice during that time when she visited Los Angeles. It didn´t matter though, we got to know each other very well. Our intellects matched as did our sense of humor and we of course, exchanged photos too. Indomitable, funny, determined with a keen eye and opinion, she was one of a kind.

I miss you my friend; may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Effe Simpson

October 9, 2023

I learned of Patricia a few years ago when I was putting together a family history and discovered that she was a cousin. When I contacted her she was more than willing to help me put together the information on her family and I was ever so grateful. She told me of her life and the experiences that she had and it was truly an amazing. That history she contributed to ended up being 1,562 pages! And her family is in there in no small way. My condolences to her family and I know with such a person as Patricia, she will be greatly missed by not only our family but a lot of other people!

Her cousin, Effie Simpson