Patricia “Pat” Ann Holcomb (nee Patricia Ann Horne) died of a longstanding chronic neurodegenerative disease Thursday, Sept. 5, at the age of 78. She passed peacefully and at home with her husband, Dr. Barry Wayne Holcomb, in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Pat is survived by her husband, Barry, her two children, Barry Wayne Holcomb Jr. (Heather), of Durango, Colorado, and Julie Holcomb King (Josh) of Nashville; and her two grandchildren, McLellan (“Mick”) Wilder King (17) and Elliott Campbell King (15).

She is preceded in death by her parents, William (“Bill”) Curtis Horne Jr. and Eleanor Lee (“Babs”) Slocum Horne, of Pensacola, Florida; and her two sisters, Billie Lee Keyes (Jim) of Pensacola, and Judy Roberts of Jackson, Mississippi. Also surviving are Pat’s cousin, Leslie Ellington (Jim), of Jackson, as well as multiple nieces and nephews and their children.

To many of her family, Pat was known as “Sissie.” Pat was born to Bill and Eleanor Horne in Jackson June 23, 1946. She was the second of three girls. Growing up in Jackson, Pat was active and agile, spending warm months on her family’s houseboat and performing acrobatic feats while waterskiing with her father.

Pat graduated in 1964 from Provine High School, where she was voted Class Beauty and Class Favorite and was a student council member, assistant editor of the Yearbook Committee, class reporter, and a cheerleader. Pat attended college at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where she was an active member of the Phi Mu sorority, a varsity cheerleader for the Ole Miss Rebels, a Sigma Chi Sweetheart, an ROTC Sponsor, and the 1966-67 Ole Miss Homecoming Queen.

Pat graduated from Ole Miss in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education. Pat and her husband, Barry, met in October of 1965 while in college. Barry, from Fulton, Mississippi and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, was attending Ole Miss with a major in pre-medicine. They dated for two years before being married in Jackson on Dec. 23, 1967. Pat and Barry celebrated their 56th anniversary less than one year before Pat’s death.

From 1968 to 1974, Pat and Barry lived in Jackson. While Barry completed medical school and then his Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Mississippi Medical School and Medical Center, Pat worked as a Latin teacher at Brandon High School. Their first child, Barry Jr., was born in 1969. From Jackson, the family moved to Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico, where Barry served two years of active duty as a physician in the U.S. Air Force. Pat and Barry’s second child, Julie, was born on the base in 1974.

In 1976, the family of four moved back to the Southeast, settling in Vicksburg. Here, Pat was busy as a homemaker and mother, raising her children and staying involved with the community. She was an active member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary, the First Presbyterian Church of Vicksburg, and the Phi Mu House Corporation. Having fallen in love with the Western U.S. Rocky Mountains, Pat and Barry made the bold decision in 1990 to relocate once more, this time to Grand Junction. There, Pat had her teaching license reinstated and, after 20 years as a stay-at-home mother, resumed her career as a Latin teacher and director of the Latin program at Grand Junction High School. Pat, known by her students as “Magistra,” retired in 2012.

As a person, Pat Holcomb was beautiful, determined, and proud. She yelled, and she laughed. Her defense of her children and husband had the ferocity of a she-lion. She was a creative who dabbled in acting and painting and poetry. She worked hard and was not one much for sitting still. Her home was always immaculate, and her yard was always magical. She danced. She skied (a bit), and she snow-shoed. She ran, and she hiked. She had a sharp wit and the memory of an elephant. Pat’s illness denied her many of these qualities in her final years, but her strength and grit remained evident to all who knew her even to the very end. Pat was loved, and she will be missed.

Services will be held Saturday, Nov. 16, at 10:30 a.m. at Monument Presbyterian Church, 2018 South Broadway, Grand Junction, Colorado. A light reception will follow. In lieu of flowers, please express condolences via a donation to Hope West Hospice at https://www.hopewestco.org/.