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09/22/2023 04:57 PMPatricia Lewis “Pat” Donnelly, 90, passed away on Sept. 3 at Yale New Haven Hospital. Patricia was born May 25, 1933, in Hastings, Nebraska. Her parents were James Jefferson Lewis and Tad Kaufman Lewis.
She went to high school in her birthplace and attended Hastings College as a biology major. In the mid-’50s, she and her sister were living together in Denver, Colorado, where she met her future husband, Thomas Kelly Donnelly. They were married in 1958.
Pat raised three kids while on the move around Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Settling in Madison in 1973. After the kids had gone off to school, she got her real estate license and worked for Century 21. When the recession of the 1980s slowed down that market, she pivoted to interior design, her true love. After securing an associate’s degree from Albertus Magnus in that field, she started a small business called New Beginnings. When she wasn’t working, she was a devoted and skilled gardener. Most every free moment of her days was spent tilling the soil and rearranging landscape and flowers. She had the greenest of thumbs! She continued gardening well into her 80s.
Patricia was predeceased by her parents and her sister, Jane Davidson, as well as her brother, Frank Davis. She is survived by her sons, Daniel Donnelly and Thomas Donnelly (Holly); her grandchildren, Finley Donnelly and Hunter Donnelly, all of Madison. She is also survived by her sisters, Jackie Foote (John), Mary Cornell, and Peg Shearer (Bob); as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 23, at St Mary’s of the Visitation, in Clinton. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in her name to Habitat for Humanity.