Patricia Ruth Lane

Patricia Ruth Peyton Lane passed away peacefully on December 3, 2012 in Fort Collins, Colorado of kidney failure. She was born October 5, 1929, in Danville, Illinois to Louis Weldon and Ruth Jeanette Meyer Peyton. She leaves behind her children, Jennifer Ruth Lane James Carr of Denton, Texas, Peter James Lane of New York, New York and Amelia Ellen Amy Ozog Michael Of Fort Collins, Colorado; her grandchildren, Augustus Josef Gus Ozog and Evelyn Rose Eve Ozog; siblings Betty Lou Gaumer David Sr. deceased of Decatur, Illinois, and Louis WeldonJim Peyton, Jr. Alice of Danville Illinois, and three nephews, two nieces and thirteen grand nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her ex-husband, Harold James Lane, and her brother-in-law, David Gaumer, Sr. She was married to Harold Lane from December 23, 1950 to February 6 1984 residing in Chicago, Ottawa and Oak Park, Illinois during this time. Pat grew up in Danville, Illinois. She attended Danville Schools and was Valedictorian of the St. Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing, class of 1950. She married that same year and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she worked as a nurse, supporting her husband through Medical School. They began their family in 1954 with their daughter, Jennifer. In 1957, they moved to Ottawa, Illinois, where Pat was a homemaker, and they added two more children, Peter and Amy, to the family. In 1966 the family moved to Oak Park, Il. Pat became part of the first generation of non-traditional students to attend college. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Rosary College in River Forest, Il in 1975. Pat was involved in many interests and activities, both paid and unpaid, all the while being "Mom". She sewed costumes for plays and Halloween, drove the kids to countless after school music lessons and dance classes, encouraged our interests in the Arts and travel, indulged our interest in pets, including lizards and snakes, and loved us , "warts and all".
Some of her other activities and interests include: PTA, Life time member of Girl Scouts of America and local council President of same., Cub Scouts, Campfire Girls, Toastmistresses, Zonta Club, local genealogy societies, member of the DAR, Music, especially piano, organ and church choir member since high school, stamp collecting, needle work, especially crewel embroidery, crochet and quilting, member of the United Methodist Churches in Danville, Ottawa, Oak Park and Decatur, IL., and of the Unitarian Universalist Churches in Decatur Il, and Fort Collins, Colorado, her children and her grandchildren, all the while living with progressive, debilitating arthritis. She was interested in geneology, and was an early adapter to the computer in her researches and communications, using a personal computer for decades. In the 1980's and 90's, Pat worked professionally in social service as an ombudsman, and in various roles as a community health nurse in Danville, Decatur and Ottawa, Il., receiving The Illinois Governor's Award for Service to Seniors and the Community in 1997. She was loved and appreciated by many whose lives she touched. In her final years, she volunteered at the Assisted Living at Oak Ridge, Ft Collins, Colorado where she resided and participated in the "kitchen band" both there and at her final residence of Golden Peaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where she was also twice elected President of the Residents Council.
She will be greatly missed.