Patricia Owens Fordice (born Patricia Owens; November 27, 1934 – July 12, 2007) was the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

from 1992 until 1999, the wife of Republican

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Kirk Fordice. The couple

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

d after forty-four years of marriage on December 9, 1999. Mrs. Fordice was called the "Eternal First Lady" and received numerous awards for her activities both during and after her husband's tenure as governor. The

Mississippi State Legislature The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 me ...

awarded her a formal recognition during the 1999 regular session. In

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, she received the Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson National Award, and

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

presented her with the Presidential Service Award. She was listed in 2000 in ''

Marquis Who's Who in the World Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...

'' and the following year in the Cambridge Press's ''1000 Great Americans.'' In 2002, she was included in '' Marquis Who's Who of American Women.'' She also received the Medal of Honor from the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

. She was knighted as "Dame of Grace" by the Russian Orthodox Order in recognition of humanitarian efforts on behalf of the city of St. Petersburg,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Following the divorce, her ex-husband remarried in 2000 but divorced again in 2003. Kirk Fordice then became ill with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, and his ex-wife was at his side when he died at the age of seventy in 2004. In November 2005, Pat Fordice resigned as the city of Jackson's interim head of Human and Cultural Services. At the time, she indicated that the full-time position was more demanding than she believed she could handle. She was also a co-host of ''Woman to Woman'', with Juanita Sims Doty, on

Mississippi Public Broadcasting Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) is the public broadcasting state network serving the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television (MAET), an agency of the state government that holds the lic ...

. She appeared in a series of commercials for Keep Mississippi Beautiful and the Mississippi Department of Transportation as part of its anti-littering campaign. One commercial showed Mrs. Fordice saying, "I'm Not Your Mama-Pick it up, Mississippi".

Death

Pat Fordice died in 2007, aged 72, of cancer at her home in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, Mississippi. She is interred at Parkway Memorial Cemetery in Ridgeland.

References

1934 births 2007 deaths First ladies and gentlemen of Mississippi Place of birth missing Mississippi Republicans People from Jackson, Mississippi 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians Deaths from cancer in Mississippi Burials in Mississippi 21st-century American women {{US-poli-bio-stub