Georgia Ernestine (Goff) Patton

Life’s Reflection

            Georgia Ernestine Patton of Kansas City, Kansas passed away January 12, 2017.  Georgia was born on November 24, 1924 in Plattsburg, Missouri to Rev. Noah C. and Virginia L. Goff.  The family moved to Kansas City, Kansas in 1941 so that Georgia and her siblings could attend high school and she graduated from Sumner High School in 1943.

            Georgia was preceded in death by her parents, a sister Francis L. Patton, brothers Noah H. Goff and Ronald E. Goff and grandson Preston Bonds.

            On. September 1, 1946 Georgia married the love of her life William L. Patton.  They were married for fifty-four years until his death on October 19, 2000. 

            Growing up in a small town, Georgia learned at an early age the importance of a strong sense of family and the development of survival skills.  She spent hours learning to recognize and use nature’s bounty.  She could walk through the woods and point out dozens of edible plants.  She preserved foods and was recognized as a Master teacher in food preservation for the Kansas Museum of History operated by the Kansas State Historical Society.  She created dozens of jellies made from common fruits, plants, and flowers. Georgia was a regular fixture at local folk art festivals where she would offer her jellies and talk about her two favorite pastimes: fishing and quilting.  She was an artist whose quilts were exhibited at local shows and at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D. C. Her quilts were also featured in two books: “Kansas Quilts and Quilters” and “A Communion of The Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories”

            Georgia spent most of her life teaching her own children but she also touched the lives of countless children as a librarian for the Kansas City, Kansas School District working at several elementary schools. 

            Georgia lived a life of service.  She was a loyal and faithful member of St. Paul AME Church as a former Usher and she was an active member of the Helen K. Newton WMS and the Lay Organization, she was member of Orient Assembly 39 order of the Golden Circle.  She was also an active member in the KCK Branch NAACP.  Georgia was a strong voice for justice.  She was actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement for many years; picketing and demonstrating against segregation to challenging environmental racism by becoming a leading voice in defeating a proposed landfill that would have endangered the environment along the Missouri River in historic Quindaro.

 She is survived by her children: daughters, NedRa Bonds of Kansas City, Kansas; Winifred Abdul-Rahim (Omar) of Washington, D.C.; Candace Birdsong of Kansas City, Kansas; sons, Michael Patton (Sandra) of Kansas City, Missouri; Cedric Patton of Kansas City, Kansas; 12 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; a host of family and friends.

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