Patricia Mai Blair Copeland, age 79, peacefully transitioned from this earthly life on Thursday, February 29, 2024, at her residence. At the time of her passing, Patricia had acquired 79 years, 4 months, and 22 days of age.
Patricia’s life began on October 7, 1944, in Nashville, Tennessee, the child of the late Luther Holt and the late Nora Bell Blair. She was united in holy matrimony to Charles Copeland in June of 1962 and they shared 48 years before his passing in 2010. A member of Harrison Street Missionary Baptist Church in Paducah, Patricia shared her faith in the work that she did in the community and her interactions with her family. She was a devoted homemaker who was equally devoted to her family.
She will be remembered by family and friends as a sharing, caring, strong Black Queen who took care of everyone. Everyone included family, friends, and anyone who stepped a foot on her porch; she never met a stranger. Summer was her favorite season because it gave her an opportunity to sit on her porch from sun up until sun down watching the cars go up and down the street waving at the people in passing cars and then asking, “who was that?”
She was a person who kept it “100”, whether you liked it or not, and because she had no filter and did not sugarcoat anything, she did not mind putting you in your place. Two things she did not play about were her money and her Pepsi! If you owed her money, you had better get it back to her quick or she would talk crazy to you and about you until she was repaid. Two of her favorite things to say were, “Money is my best friend” and “I’m just trying to get paid.”
Patricia was a giver and a helper who possessed all the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. She was such a unique person that God called her home on February 29th, a leap day so that her loved ones will not have to mourn every year on the day she passed. They will be able to move forward in life without her, because the leap year gives them four years to heal.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Copeland, her parents; three sisters, Dorothy Blair, Gracie Cummings, and Evelyn Jones; and two granddaughters, Lawriel Q’Hantiz Sains and A’myracle Mi’Love Ford Hutcherson.
Left behind to treasure precious memories of Patricia are her; seven daughters, Adonnus (Stefan) Sains, Terra Copeland, Vonda Copeland, Constance Copeland and Carolyn Hutcherson, all of Paducah, KY; Sharon (Roy) Burell of Columbus, OH, Marquetta Copeland of St. Louis, MO; twenty grandchildren; twenty-six great-grandchildren; two great great-grandchildren, special niece, Stephanie Blair of Nashville, TN and other relatives and friends.
Services are scheduled for Friday, March 8, 2024, 11:00 a.m. at Greater Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church with Reverend Alfred Anderson and Reverend Dr. James Hudson officiating. Burial will follow in Woodlawn Memorial Gardens.