PATRICIA ANN PERUSEK (nee Ellison) was the only child of Gerald Ormsby Ellison and Katherine Ruth (George) Ellison. She was an avid reader and lifelong enthusiast of classical music, and enjoyed playing the piano and flute in her younger years. She loved tending her garden, especially her raspberry patch, but rather liked to let things grow to "see what they would become." She loved her little dog, Bucky, a rescue, whom she walked daily. She also loved to ride her bike. If the roads were not wet or icy, she would ride – often 6 miles a day – to Lakewood Park and along Edgewater Drive, exploring the cul-de-sacs and taking time to stop and look over Lake Erie, notice the waves and wildlife and count the Canada geese. She logged more than 7,744 miles on her bike in the past 5 years.

She was the daughter of immigrants and second generation Americans who traced their lineages to Liverpool, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. Her immigrant father was a U.S. Army Signal Corps dispatch rider in France during World War I (even though he had not yet been nationalized as a citizen). Her mother's family included refugees from Germany seeking religious freedom in America.

After high school in Parma, Ohio, Patricia received her R.N. degree cum laude from City Hospital School of Nursing in 1953 and became a public health nurse, working in communities in Cleveland and Akron. Throughout the years she was employed by several different companies as a secretary and retired from Ohio Northern University where she worked in Public Relations. Later she volunteered teaching English as a second language to international students out of her home in Ada, Ohio, and derived great pleasure from sharing her knowledge and love for the written word.

Her literary interests were broad; her tastes ran to historical fiction, thrillers, science fiction and books written from a woman's point of view. Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear was a favorite; she also loved Sherlock Holmes, and the work of popular authors like Ken Follett, Patricia Cornwell and Clive Cussler. Unfinished at her bedside was Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon . Her favorite books as a child included the Doctor Doolittle and the Burgess Bird Book for Children, which she learned to read when she was five. She learned to identify and appreciate the wildlife that showed up in her backyard, she loved wildflowers, especially the blue chicory for its beauty and toughness, and she developed a reverence for nature that she passed on to her children and grandchildren.

She was certain that there is a right way to function in the world—respectfully, in relationship to other people, and in relationship to the planet. Pat couldn't countenance thoughtless waste of resources, and although she wouldn't have used the term, she was a grassroots environmental activist. She was a paragon of economy and frugality. She was known by neighbors in her community of Lakewood, Ohio, as the woman who picked up littered cans, loose trash and papers on the street. She carried herself with a simple grace and honesty and was an inspiration to us all.

Patricia was deeply loved by her family and will be greatly missed.  Her influence on her children and grandchildren will endure all time.

Patricia was predeceased by her husband, Wesley Perusek (d. February 14, 2009).

Patricia is survived by her children; son Glenn Wesley Perusek, daughters Dawn Katherine Stang (Mark) and Gail Patricia Perusek (Linda White); grandchildren, Kevin Patrick, Emily Quinn and Caroline Ellison Stang; cousin Marilyn Adams (Kent); niece Jane Albrecht (Gary); nephews Tom White (Peggy), Bruce, and David White, and several grandnieces and nephews.

Interment was at Evergreen Cemetery in Westlake, Ohio on December 7, 2016.