Mary Lynn Wakefield Patten passed from this life to the next on July 7, 2022. She was born Aug. 14, 1935, in Ogden, Utah.
She grew up in the shadow of Timpanogos, attending Brigham Young Academy and BYU, from which she graduated with a degree in home economics education. After BYU, she studied at Upper Montclair Teacher’s College in New Jersey and taught home economics in Rupert, Idaho.
Mary Lynn married Emery Phillips Patten in 1960. They lived all over, and every place they went was made better by Mary Lynn’s generosity and poise. She made dinners seem to appear magically, for family, for unexpected guests, for gatherings of 200 people, and just as wondrously brought up vegetables and flowers, in California and Michigan, and even in the scorching sun of Saudi Arabia where she lived for many years.
And, oh, could she make stuff: Jam and pies, sure, but hard-candy lollipops, too. People who tasted her cinnamon rolls have dreams about them. She sewed and quilted and embroidered and crocheted, knitted and tatted, and made things in ways we don’t have words for, bequeathing to her children a love for textiles that made her cheeks rosy.
In the many places she lived, Mary Lynn served in every capacity, from Stake Relief Society President to Primary teacher. She and Emery served a Spanish-speaking LDS mission in New York City. For years, she served as a Manti Temple worker. Mary Lynn was curious about people, a good friend, an adoring oldest sister, mother, aunt, cousin, “lollipop lady”. She saw and appreciated each person she met around the world and delighted in their uniqueness. In passing, Mary Lynn joined Emery, also her parents Thomas Lynn and Helen Wakefield, and her niece Julie Wakefield Morrison. She leaves her brother Dan Wakefield and sisters Emma Susann Wakefield and Helen Devey. So too, her five children: Paralee King, Dow Wakefield Patten, Lynell Lemon, Celia Mason and Martha Weatherred. Mary Lynn leaves four sons-in-law, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be 11 a.m. Saturday, July 16, 2022 at the Fairview 3rd Ward Chap- el, rock church, 131 E. 100 N., Fairview. Viewing from 9:30- 10:30 a.m. Interment in the Fairview City Cemetery. Online condolences and Live Zoom Link at rasmussenmortuary.com in her obituary.
