Sheila Diane Patterson

From June 9, 1945 until March 8, 2026, the world and our family were graced with the presence of true beauty. All people, of course, are beautiful, precious, worthy of love and kindness, but that beauty can be hard to see in some people. It was very easy to see in my mother, Diana Patterson. People were struck by her physical beauty her whole life, and it took very little interaction with her for her inner beauty — her kindness, gentleness of spirit, authenticity, and deep care for others — to become apparent.

She was born Sheila Diana Hargis to Virginia Hargis, née Phillips and Charles “Wheel” Hargis. Mom was the third child, and the eldest daughter. She was the light of her father’s life, dearly loved her brothers, and was best friend to her little sister, Myrna. Of her siblings, she was preceded in death by her youngest brother, Michael Hargis, and is survived by her sister Myrna Reagon, her brothers Charles Jr. and wife Betty, Stanley, and John Hargis, and all of their children and grandchildren.

Mom was a rock for her sister, and she would be the same for her children. She was dauntless and tireless in her devotion to our family, working full-time, making sure we were dressed well, and cooking delicious meals. She was kind, shrewd, and genuine. She adored her four children, Eric and his wife Jennifer, Kevin and his partner Alicia, Leanne, and Ethan and his wife Rachel— all of whom will miss her dearly. She equally adored her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, two of whom preceded her in death: Derrick Patterson, Eric’s son, and Alex Patterson, Kevin’s son. She is survived by one grandson, Andrew Patterson; five granddaughters: Megan Yagnich, Victoria Patterson, Campbell Patterson, Sophia Patterson, and Diana “Gracie” Patterson; and four great-grandchildren: Caylor, Ella, Hadley, and Finley Yagnich. I know that I likely can’t fathom the depth of Mom’s love for any of us, but I do know that her love is one thing — maybe the only thing — that we’ve never had to question. Mom was born, raised, and resided in Blount County for most of her life, though she also spent some years in Atlanta, GA, where she gave birth to her eldest son, Eric, and in the Hampton, VA area, where she became an skilled hand-line crabber. She had an immense talent for cooking and both a love and a knack for travel, orchestrating many family vacations over the years as well as taking major trips to California and, in 2012, to Scotland alongside the Maryville College Concert Choir.

Diana is also survived by our father, Robert Leon Patterson. Dad must have known a good thing when he saw it, because he proposed to Mom and they were married less than two months after they met, on September 2nd, 1962. A twenty-one-year-old boy and a seventeen-year-old girl. Wheel, Mom’s father, was incensed, but they worked it out, and Mom and Dad kept working it out for well over half a century, with four children born between the years 1964 and 1993. Against all odds, through financial hardship, bereavement, and the simple challenges of everyday life, they persevered. By the end of her life, he was the rock for her that she was for everyone else. Over the last five years, Dad has cared for Mom as she suffered from frontal lobe dementia. The rest of us will be forever grateful to him for caring for our dear, dear mother, but no more grateful than he is to have done it. Even in her illness, even when she lost her mobility and her ability to speak more than a word or two at a time, Mom was still uplifting and caring for others. Diana Patterson was the same beautiful presence the entirety of her life, and she continues to be now in a new way.

Job 1 says “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” God gave us Diana Patterson for eighty years, and now she’s been taken away. But I’m realizing that God takes less than God gives, because there is so much of her that remains. In our hearts. In all our memories. In the love between those of us who remain. In the eyes of my daughters and my nieces and my nephew. In the ways she impacted friends and family and strangers. God gave us Diana Patterson, and she gave all of us so, so very much.

We all love you dearly.

Thank you.