Mary Patterson, preserver of Church of God in Christ history, dies at 83
Mary Patterson poses in her Memphis, Tennessee, home on December 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)
Mary P. Patterson, who was the widow of a Church of God in Christ presiding bishop and became known for her efforts to preserve the history of the historically Black Pentecostal denomination, died on June 24. She was 83.
Patterson had been diagnosed with cancer and had been under hospice care, said Darrin Rodgers, director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri.
In 2012, Patterson presented the papers of her late husband, J.O. Patterson Sr., the first elected COGIC presiding bishop, to the center, which is located at the national offices of the Assemblies of God and is the world’s largest Pentecostal archive.
