Patricia Ann McWhorter Greenhaw

Patricia Ann McWhorter Greenhaw

A Woman Who Believed In and Served Jesus Christ

1926 through 2024

by Terry Reid

A remarkable daughter, wife and mother, Patricia garnered love, devotion, and immense admiration from those who knew her. She lived her life as a true Proverbs 31 woman, trusting in God and believing in Jesus Christ as her Savior.

Patricia was the granddaughter of N.A. and Adell Holley, grocery and farming pioneers whose landmark building is now Alejandro's Restaurant, a centerpiece of Front Street Station Downtown Mesquite development. She was the only child and beloved "Little B" of Ferd and Eula McWhorter, merchants, and civic leaders. McWhorter Elementary School and McWhorter Park and Street are named in honor of Ferd McWhorter. Beloved immediate family members that molded Patricia's life for decades were her uncles Raymond and Anson Holley.

Patricia married Frank W. Greenhaw, and their love story spanned the course of 64 years. Frank, best known in his early professional years as an accomplished band and choral director, was also a successful real estate developer, merchant and businessman. Patricia considered the support of her husband's career a priority in her own life, and she played a vital role in his achievements including his election to President of the National Retail Hardware Association, and receiving the Baylor University Family Business of the Year Award. A great joy for her was son, ART Greenhaw, who worked alongside his parents in all their business endeavors. Recognizing musical genius at the age of three years old, Patricia saw that Art received the best music education available in the region, including enrolling him in the Piano Preparatory Department at SMU when Art was only a young child. There he studied piano under the internationally recognized Lucien Leinfelder. Art ultimately garnered eight Grammy Award Nominations and won the Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Southern, Country or Blue Grass Gospel Album. Though Art received numerous awards and commendations including one from President Jimmy Carter, Patricia often said that she was most proud of Art for receiving the T.A.C.T. (Teenage Citizenship Tribute) Award presented by the Dallas Morning News and the Zale Corporation.

Pat as she was known to her friends and peers, graduated with highest honors from Mesquite High School. Unusual for a woman of her generation, Pat earned a degree in Home Economics from Southern Methodist University and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. She taught elementary school in Mesquite, Texas. In a letter to Pat, Mesquite Schools Superintendent T.H. McDonald wrote that she was among the best teachers that he had ever supervised. Always using her life and talents to teach Jesus Christ as Savior to the best of her ability, she was a youth teacher, leader, and music director's wife at Lakewood Methodist Church Dallas and First Methodist Church of Mesquite during the years when those congregations enjoyed their greatest attendance and achieved their highest membership numbers. She was elected Chairman of Methodist Home-Waco Board of Commissioners, a children's home very close to her heart. She was a founding member and elder of the innovative Country Church of Mesquite, a collaboration in the 1990s between the Southern Baptist Convention and other Christian leaders including orthodox, evangelical Methodist members and laity.

Patricia is a life member of the Mesquite Women's Club where she served since 1951 and is a past President of the organization. She held officer positions in the American Association of University Women, and the Mesquite Council of Women's Clubs. During her leadership in the 1960s-70s, both organizations achieved peak membership. Pat and husband Frank envisioned one of Mesquite's first concept cafes, Town House Grill. The property later became the Mesquite headquarters of Texas Power and Light-Mesquite. It is the current site of Creek Crossing Harvest Church pastored by Mesquite, Texas Mayor Dan Aleman. Pat instigated a number of fine arts school programs in Mesquite in the early and mid-1960s, with the cooperation and leadership of the superintendent of schools including visual arts. theater, speech, drama. In 1963, Pat and husband Frank were awaiting the arrival of President John F. Kennedy at the Dallas Trade Mart when news of the President's assassination shocked the world.

She was a founding member of the Mesquite Performing Arts Council which was responsible for the successful Mesquite Folk Festival. She and husband Frank traveled to Austin to attend sessions of the Texas Legislature as supporters and founders of Dallas County Community College District in its earliest stages. Pat was a member of the Dallas County Historical Commission, and she was a co-chair of the Mesquite Bicentennial Committee responsible for the Downtown Square Gazebo Plaza development.

Patricia Greenhaw's papers and historical materials are available for researchers at Dallas Central Public Library, Texas and Dallas division, Holley-McWhorter-Greenhaw Collection.

A service to celebrate the extraordinary life of Patricia Ann McWhorter Greenhaw will be held on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at 2 p.m. at the Creek Crossing Harvest Church located at 124 W Davis Street, Mesquite, TX 75149, Pastor Dan Aleman presiding.

In lieu of flowers and in keeping with the heartfelt desire of Mrs. Greenhaw, her family requests donations to the Methodist Children's Home - Waco - 1111 Herring Ave, Waco, TX 76708, https://www.mch.org/donate.

The family respectfully requests privacy during this time of intense mourning.