Jones College

Patrick began her employment at JCJC in 1983 as school president Dr. Terrell Tisdale’s secretary.

She became the school’s first sports information director in 1984 and held that position for two years until those responsibilities merged with those of the Public Relations Director, a position she held from 1987-97.

Patrick established media guides for football, basketball and baseball and Media Days for the same sports. Four of those football guides were named No. 1 in the nation by the NJCAA, as well as two of the basketball press guides.

Patrick compiled records for the Bobcat football teams from 1927-97 and sent statistical information and game stories to all NJCAA voting members weekly. 

Patrick, who came to JCJC from R.H. Watkins High School in Laurel, also served as the basketball scorekeeper for 10 years, the baseball scorekeeper for six years and kept football statistics from 1984-94.

In 1995, Patrick coordinated publicity and many activities for the 40th reunion of the 1955 Junior Rose Bowl team that gained national attention because African-American members of the Compton College (California) team JCJC played in the game were invited by a person outside the college to attend the reunion.

The 1955 JCJC team broke the racial barriers of the time by becoming the first Mississippi athletic team to play an integrated team.

Patrick attended JCJC from 1976-78 and worked with all of the sports teams as their statistician. She served as Sports Editor and Executive Editor of the school’s student newspaper, The Radionian.

She covered the 1977 Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and the 1978 Region 7 Men’s Basketball Tournament in Tennessee, which was the first time a JCJC basketball team participated in a region tournament. She was a member of the Maroon Typhoon Marching Band, marching at halftime and keeping statistics during the game. 

After JCJC, she attended the University of Southern Mississippi where she was Sports Editor of the USM Student Printz newspaper during her first semester and was hired during her second semester by the Hattiesburg American to write sports. She was one of only two female sportswriters at a major daily newspaper in Mississippi at the time. 

Patrick was the announcer/scorekeeper/scoreboard operator for Laurel-Jones County Dixie Majors baseball from 1977-83 and served as secretary/treasurer for Ellisville Dizzy Dean Baseball for three years.

She is a lifetime member of the JCJC Alumni Association and, along with her brothers Wilroy and Bruce, has endowed a scholarship at Jones in honor of her parents.

She is married to Howard Patrick and they have a son, Rease, and a daughter-in-law, Danyelle.