Patricia "Pat" JoAnn Wood Gee, 82 of Little Rock, Arkansas, passed away on October 28, 2017. She was born in Chama, New Mexico on December 19, 1934 to Zang and Dessie Wood. Her and her family moved to Farmington, New Mexico in 1942. She has always said she had been blessed to have special and enduring friendships, as in the friendship of Carsle Ferrick Gabel since 1944. She graduated from Farmington High School in 1953 and attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
She moved to Magnolia, Arkansas in 1960, and Southwest Little Rock became home in 1966. When she moved to Little Rock, she became a champion and avid supporter of Southwest. She was Vice President of Southwest Little Rock United for Progress; President of upper Baseline and Windamere Neighborhood Association; a member of South Little Rock Rotary; elected to represent Southwest on the Little Rock School Board for three terms; and a member of "Working Together in the Community" for the Latino population in Southwest. In her capacity as an officer for various groups, she met and worked with some of the City Directors, especially, Joan Adcock; who she admired and supported. She also was fortunate to have a great working relationship with the city employees, who "knew so much and made her look good!"
She retired from the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department in 1997 and always said she was so fortunate to have worked with Bob Kessinger and Stephen Teague in research.
The most enjoyable volunteer job was at the Clinton Presidential Center from the opening in 2004 until 2016. The people she met and the friends she made, gave her the incentive to let the visitors know how glad she was that they were visiting the center. She was always a "Yellow Dog Democrat," and believed that people were put on this earth to take care of the less fortunate. She did not realize how much child hunger there was in Little Rock until she started working in the schools and on the Little Rock School Board. "For a country of so much wealth, it is disgraceful for there to be even one child who is hungry."
She is preceded in death by her son, Steven; younger sister, Kaye Wood, who was killed by a drunk driver in a head-on collision when she was 24 years old.
She is survived by her son, Brett Gee (Alice Ann); grandson, Zachary; brother, Zang Wood (Pat) of Farmington, New Mexico; numerous nephews and nieces.
Celebration of life will be held at Lifeline Baptist Church on Friday, November 3, 2017 at 11:00 A.M.