Helen Marie Patterson

Funeral services for Helen Marie Patterson, 95, of Big Sandy, will be 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 18, 2019 at the Croley Funeral Chapel in Gladewater with Pastor Lizabeth Elkins officiating. Interment will follow services at Chilton Cemetery. The family will receive friends Wednesday Evening from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. at Croley Funeral Home in Gladewater. Mrs. Patterson passed away on Saturday, April 13, 2019, in Longview.

Helen was born November 18, 1923 in Lynchburg, Virginia to the late Harvey Thornton DeJarnette and Minnie L. Biggs DeJarnette. She was a graduate from the Draughn’s Business School in Wichita Falls, Texas. Helen worked for the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover from 1941 to 1945 as a mail clerk; she considered this her college education. She went on to teach a business class. She and her late husband “Bo” Patterson owned and operated the Big S&H Journal for many years and handled all aspects of the daily business. She went on to own and operate the Upshur Business Services for many years serving many of the local businesses in their bookkeeping and paperwork needs.

Helen was a longtime devoted member of the First Baptist Church in Big Sandy where she taught Sunday school for many years. She was very involved with the community serving on the Chilton Cemetery Association Board of Directors, Big Sandy Museum Association and as President of the Big Sandy Women’s Club.

She is survived by her sister-in-law Jan DeJarnette; nieces Jane Pace, Loretta Ann Mann and Chrissy Stuewe (Richards Widow); nephews Major Michael W. DeJarnette, Sydney J. Stuewe and wife Carol, William R. Stuewe and wife Joy, James A. Stuewe and wife Karen; good friend and personal assistant Bernice Burson as well as many other extended family and friends.

Helen is preceded in death by her brothers Kenneth and Ronald DeJarnette, nephews Wayne and Richard Stuewe, her parents and husband James Eugene “Bo” Patterson who passed away in 1991.