Patricia Ann Colson Baxter, born to George and Mildred Colson, in Detroit, Michigan, on February 25, 1939, passed away May 10, 2023, following a year long struggle with complications of squamous cell carcinoma.
Patricia, or Patty as she was known to her family, attended public school in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, and attended nearby Wayne State University, before being accepted into the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, where she became a certified nurse and earned a Master’s degree in Public Health. With those skills and credentials, she joined the United States Public Health Service, USPHS, as a commissioned officer, and embarked on many years as a nurse on the Lakota Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and on the Navajo/Hopi Reservations in Northeast Arizona. Soon after being reassigned to the Indian Health Services Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1981, she met and married then United States Air Force Captain William E. Baxter. Placing her nursing profession on hold, Tricia and Bill spent the next 17 years traveling the world with military assignments to Okinawa, Japan, Hawaii, Florida, and the Pentagon in 1992, shortly after Bill was promoted to the rank of Colonel. While in Arlington, Virginia, Patricia worked three years on the staffs of Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, as a public health advisor to the wives of the newly elected President and Vice President of the United States. Additionally, she found time to train and become a docent in the Washington National Cathedral, Georgetown, District of Columbia. When Bill was sent to Germany in 1995 as the Director of Security Forces in Europe, Tricia optimized her time, traveling throughout Europe. Her husband Bill often teased her that she was really an undercover agent with the CIA in that she was in then, Yugoslavia, on the very night in which their heavy-handed leader, Tito, died in 1980. Follow that with her being on a shopping/sightseeing tour in Manila, Philippines, the day that Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1984. Hmm? Patricia Colson Baxter was an extraordinary human being and excelled in all her endeavors whether they be in education, public service, or just enjoying and experiencing life to its fullest.
Mrs. Baxter is survived by her husband Bill, with 40 years of marriage; her brother David Colson and wife Cherill of Garrison, New York; and nephew Christopher Colson (wife Emily); and niece Kacy Jergens (husband Jordie) of Monticello, New York; her step daughter, Courtney Leigh Jensen (Erik) of Wichita, Kansas; her step grandchildren, Emily, Hannah and Kayla.
Mrs. Baxter was preceded in death by her parents, George Colson and Mildred Pierce Colson.
A memorial funeral service is scheduled for 11:00 A.M. Monday, May 15, 2023 at Grace Episcopal Church with Rev. Charles Uhlik officiating.
A reception with the family, will follow the memorial service at the church
Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to St. Vincent de Paul charitable organization, 2025 Cairo Rd. Paducah, KY 42001.
Arrangements are being handled by Milner & Orr Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Paducah.
You may leave a message of condolence and light a candle of remembrance at www.milnerandor.com <http://www.milnerandor.com>.
