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Patricia Smith (Pat) Carr
July 19, 1951 – June 24, 2017
Pat Carr died of cancer at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, 2017, on her second day of in-patient hospice care. Her funeral is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 on July 22, 2017, at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, 14115 Hillcrest Road, Dallas, TX 75254, located at the intersection with Spring Valley Road.
Pat was born at 7 pounds 3 ½ ounces on July 19, 1951, at 6:52 a.m. in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie County while her parents were living in Seminole. Her father was Robert Woodworth Carr and her mother was Barbara Seymore Hunt Carr (both predeceased Pat). The family moved to Oklahoma City where her two brothers, Kim and Sam, were born and the family attended St. David’s Episcopal Church. Pat attended Putnam City schools until age 13 when her dad was promoted and transferred to Houston, Texas, by Gulf Oil. There the family attended St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church and she attended Spring Woods Junior High and graduated from Spring Woods High School in 1969. Her journalism bent showed in high school with her being the school paper’s columns editor junior year and news managing editor senior year. Pat went to The University of Texas in Austin, Texas, in the fall of 1969. There she held some summer jobs counseling students from the Dean of Students office. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television/Film in 1973 with minors in Photojournalism and French. This is where she developed her lifelong interest in photography.
Her first professional position was photographer for television station KHTV in Houston, Texas. In addition to production, promotion, and advertising needs she also did on-location shooting and some independent production work. After KHTV she became an advertising salesperson for a publishing company and then an account coordinator for an advertising firm using her education and TV training. In 1977, the love of the camera pulled her back to a photography job at the UT Dental School of The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
Her next career jump was in 1977, she started part time customer service and sales in cosmetics at Foley’s, Sharpstown, Houston. In 1979 she switched to full time with added supervisory responsibilities and represented Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, pushing the store and Elizabeth Arden to volume leaders. She used this time to put herself through paralegal school, graduating in 1983. Her first paralegal job was with Mayor, Day, and Caldwell in Houston. In 1985, she moved to Dallas, Texas, and started contract paralegal work. In 1986 she obtained a full time paralegal position with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, & Feld. As a paralegal her most praised skills were organization so that she could retrieve documents on a moment’s notice and the ability of read draft documents and locate any disconnects. In 1991, Akin, Gump downsized and Pat went back to contract paralegal jobs through several legal personnel companies. From 2000 to 2006 she worked full time for DeHay and Elliston. There she did case discovery and management for large defense asbestos cases and set up the firm’s initial interface to LexisNexis. After 2006 she went back to part time contract jobs through placement companies until she retired at age 65 in 2016. She also held a part time position as church secretary at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church and another part time job assisting teaching third and fourth grade and conduction an after school program from 2007 to 2010.
In her private life, Pat was always into photographing flowers and into baking cookies and traveling with several of her friends (some from early school days). She was baptized into the Episcopal Church after birth and stayed with it throughout her life. In 2000 she joined The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration when she discovered the interim rector was the priest she had grown up with in Oklahoma from the age of 18 months. (This priest along with the current rector will conduct her funeral service.) In 1999 Pat was diagnosed with kidney cancer which was cured with surgery and chemotherapy. Then in 2014 she was diagnosed with colon cancer and started a new chemotherapy for it.
In December, 2016, her computer upgraded to Windows 10 which had no support for her printer. So, she called the church for help. In January, the church sent over another retired parishioner (Hal) to help. They went to an electronics store where he translated from “salesman” to English to help her pick out a new printer and set it up for her. They became best of friends and Hal proposed to Pat on the twelfth of May as he picked her up from a chemo session. They planned a wedding fit for her being a first time bride for the 22nd of July while he supported her through her chemo until her death. Hal chose the 22nd of July for Pat’s funeral in memory of the joy they had brought each other for the six months they knew each other. In life Pat loved dogs. She had several AKC registered cocker spaniels that she trained. In death she left behind Wesley, a four year old Chihuahua, that is enjoying life with the multiple grandchildren of a very dear friend.
Donations to The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration endowment fund would be a fitting memorial to Pat.
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