Evening star., 1948-07-25
Mrs. Patterson
Continued From First Page. }

had complained of a tightness in the
chest and of the heart.
Her body was discovered by Eva
Borowik, her maid, and Robert Lye,
butler who had intended relaying
telephone message from the news
paper. The lights were still on in
the room.
A heart attack sent her to bed for
three months two years ago, but
recently she had been actively en-
gagged in her work. She had been
| looking forward to a vacation at
her Jackson Hole (Wyo0 ranch.
En- route to Washington were her
daughter, Felicia Gizycka of New
York, and granddaughter, Ellen
Cameron Pearson Arnold of Santa
Monica, Calf.
Funeral arrangements were to be
completed today. The body now at
Gawler's Funeral Home, will be re-
moved later to her Washington home
at Is Dupont Circle.
Wealthy and socially prominent
from birth, Mrs. Patterson waited
until she was 46 years old to take
an active part in the history Of a
newspaper dynasty.
1t was only natural that the urge
to write and publish finally over
took her because her grandfather,
Joseph Medill. was founder OF the
Chicago Tribune; her father, Rob-
ert Wilson Patterson, rose from a
reporter to editor in chief of that
paper and her brother, the late
Joseph M. Patterson, created the
New York Daily News.
Another member of that family,
Col. Robert R. Mccormick, publisher
of the Chicago Tribune, was in
Paris yesterdaysW when word of, her
death came. Cot. Mccormick, in
dispatches reaching here, said her
passing was a terrible blow"
Lived Full Life.
Before Mrs. Patterson's interests
turned to newspaper editing in 1880,
she had lived life as full and ro-
mantle as the two novels she had
written. ~ -.---
1t included Asadazzitng debut at
her Dupont Circiee heme social
whin In Vienna and st. Petersburg,
marriage to Polish count, daugh-
ter. divorce and finally, a second
marriage.
Once she decided on a newspaper
career, Mrs. Patterson approached
1t was the same energy and purpose
fulness that had marked her earlier
activities.
Although her previous experience
had embraced a few big game hunt
ing feature stories, Mrs. Patterson
was not one to start from the bot
tom.
She asked Arthur Brisbane, the
columnist, for a job editing the
Washington Herald. a Hearst news
paper. Mr.. Brisbane cabled William
Randolph Hearst in Europe for per-
mission and Mrs. Patterson became
a $4,000 a year editor.
Was Quick to Act.
Mrs. Patterson's methods of op-
Grafton soon set her up as something
more permanent than the parade of
Hearst editors who had come and
gone on the Herald and the evening
paper, the Times.
Soft-Spoken, but quick to act, she
became more than figurehead.
She watched the progress of her pa
per with the zeal of proud par
ent: set down policies that brought
the results she wanted or new as
SiStantS.
Her eccentricities were cause for
concern among her underlings and
fodder for after-hours conversation.
Mrs. Patterson was known to invade
her office clad In slacks or an eve
ming gown. She was known to make
vital orders at am. Her out
spoken editorial policy, particularly
concerning the Roosevelt admins
tration, lifted eyebrows in some
quarters.
Tried to Perfect Paper.
But there were few among her
subordinates who would contest Mrs.
PatterSon's earneStneSs in irving tn