Patricia Anne Callison

Patricia Anne Lancaster Callison, 86, died December 1, 2016 surrounded by her family at the CarePartners Hospice Solace Center. Born May 29, 1930 in Lebanon, Kentucky to Virginia Banks Lancaster and Frank Stillman Lancaster, she grew up in Lebanon and graduated from Lebanon High School. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1952. Pat met the love of her life, Bill Callison, when he was a young medical student at the Medical School of Vanderbilt University, and they married at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Kentucky in 1952. Both shared a love of their small town roots in their home state of Kentucky. While Bill finished his medical training, Pat worked as a home economist for the Nashville Gas Company, demonstrating gas ranges in business and residential settings. After graduation, they moved to Great Falls, Montana, where Bill served as a captain in the Medical Corps of the United States Air Force. They returned to Nashville for Bill's orthopedic residency at Vanderbilt, and in 1960 moved to Asheville, North Carolina where Bill joined the practice of Walter M. Watts and Wayne S. Montgomery as the third partner in the Asheville Bone & Joint Clinic, the predecessor of Blue Ridge Bone & Joint. They built their home together in Beaverdam Valley in north Asheville and raised three children on wooded property purchased from their future in-laws, James Stokely, Jr. and his wife, Wilma Dykeman Stokely. It was Pat's passion and great joy to create a home that welcomed family, friends, friends of her children, neighbors, and strangers. She and Bill both were committed to shaping a home that provided a fun, welcoming refuge; indeed, this formed the basis of their core values. She loved beauty and decorating, and their Beaverdam home functioned as a popular gathering place and shelter for countless friends over the years, some of whom stayed for extended periods. Her home was exquisitely beautiful, both because of its wooded mountain setting and because of Pat's loving attention to its decorating. She enjoyed giving parties which took advantage of her home's natural surrounding, setting an unparalleled example as a hostess. She and Bill also tended a large vegetable garden (with generous assistance provided by her father, Frank Lancaster), sharing its bounty with friends and neighbors alike, and added many native shrubs and plants over the years to those already in existence on their property. Strong faith, love of people, and commitment to her family formed the focus of Pat's life. She was an active volunteer in her children's schools, the Buncombe County Medical Auxiliary, and in the Junior League of Asheville. She participated in the life of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church for more than 50 years, serving as one of its first women elders, singing in the choir, and leading the high school youth group with her husband. An accomplished musician, Pat played piano and sang in the Asheville Symphony Chorus, and nurtured a deep love of music in her children and grandchildren. She was also a master (and quite competitive) scrabble player, and she and Bill frequently raced to see who could finish the NY Times crossword first. Pat willingly followed the lead of her hardworking, adventuresome outdoorsman husband during their 55-year marriage, despite the fact that nothing in her small-town Kentucky upbringing had prepared her for his passion for hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, and fly fishing (although her father had taught her how to shoot a .22 rifle, and she was an excellent marksman). Family trips ensued over the years, beginning in the southern mountains and later focusing on major national parks across the country. Because she and Bill had loved their time in Montana, they particularly enjoyed introducing their children to the American West, riding horses in the Marshall Wilderness in Montana, hiking and camping in Glacier National Park, and rock climbing in the Grand Tetons. During retirement, they expanded their travel to China, Kenya, Egypt, and the outdoorsman husband enjoyed the "finer" pleasures of opera in Italy and art museums across Europe. Preceded in death by Bill (2008), and her half-sister, Mary Jeanne Long, Pat is survived by her three children: Anne Callison Stokely, and her husband Jim; William Lancaster Callison, and his wife, Rhonda; Frank Russell Callison, and his wife Janice; and seven grandchildren: Elizabeth Dykeman Stokely and William Callison Stokely; Frank Carter Callison and Diana Callison Price; and Virginia, Patricia, and Frank Callison; brother-in-law James Callison, M.D. (Barbara); and niece and nephew Janet McNeill and Walter NcNeill. The family is deeply grateful for the constant care, guidance, and kindness of Dr. Margaret Noel and her staff at MemoryCare over the past 11 years. They are also indebted to the hardworking staff at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community; CarePartners Hospice; Home Instead Senior Care Companions; many committed caregivers, including Brenda Fox, Margaret Griffin, Linda Ward, and Christine Van Hook; and her companion of 8 years, Beth Twiss. A celebration of Pat's life will be held on Saturday, December 10 at 2:00 p.m. at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church with a reception following. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church (www.gcpcusa.org) or to the building fund at MemoryCare in Asheville (www.memorycare.org).