OBITUARY: Patricia “Trish” Marie Potts

Patricia

Her Memorial Service will be April 29, 2017 at 2:00pm At The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville

Trish was born on May 5, 1963 to R.H. and Peggy Jackson of Tullahoma, Tennessee. She grew up in Tullahoma and left for Lipscomb College at age 18 where she graduated with a major in business and a minor in Theatre. She loved gymnastics, theatre and singing and performed in many theatrical productions in high school, college, and even after she began work. She had a beautiful singing voice. At age 24 she was in a movie about Elvis Presley and another one called “Running Mates” which her family still gets a great kick out of watching. As a teenager and adult she spent many an hour with her lifetime best friend Dawn. Big brother Bob was always nearby watching out for her.

She lived her adult life in Nashville. After struggling to be an actress while working for about ten years in the corporate world she decided she wanted to be a teacher. She earned a Masters degree in Theatre from Antioch University in Yellow Springs Illinois. After taking additional certification classes at Lipscomb she began teaching theatre and loved it. She later taught Language Arts mostly in Williamson County and was known as an excellent teacher. She loved to create voices and personalities for the characters in the books that she read to her students. She was Nationally Certified and was recognized as an excellent teacher. She loved her students dearly and told her husband all about them almost every night sometimes to his dismay.

She married Hal Potts October 13, 1989 and they had two daughters Bridgette and Kellye now 26 amd 24. She loved being a mother and together they had one great adventure raising those two beautiful girls! Her parents RH and Peggy Jackson were also very involved in the girls lives and were known for their participation such as spending four hours driving in the car just to watch an eight–year-old girl sing a song with her class in the mall. They never missed a performance of either generation and Trish always felt greatly loved and supported by her parents.

She loved to cook and explore with flavors and textures and made many a fine meal for her family and friends. She was known as an excellent cook.

She was also known for her beautiful gardens and she spent hours and hours at night looking through her plant encyclopedias and seed catalogs as she planned her garden for spring weeks and weeks in advance. She loved to sit on her back porch underneath the pergola surrounded by her beautiful flowers and read books about dragons and wizards and potions with her favorite cat Thursday by her side. Trish named her Thursday because she found her in the woods on a Thursday.

She was a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville for her adult life and was known for her beautiful singing voice, especially her soulful solo performances. She did not care for liturgies sung in Latin but she loved it when she got to wail in Motown!

In 2012 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and continued to teach Language Arts while receiving many medical treatments, and going to hundreds of doctor appointments over five years. That story can be found on Caringbridge.org. She always hated cancer and said that she wished that part of her life could be erased from her memory and everyone else’s.

Instead of flowers she wanted donations to go to Gilda’s Club of Nashville. They provide free cancer support and became a very important part of the last five years of her life.

She loved Life. She laughed easily and freely. She would unknowingly do a little dance to herself in the grocery store while she looked over the produce. She loved to eat olives right out of the jar. She loved to sing. She hated bananas. She loved her little red car. She was known by some as Miss Sassy-Pants. She adored her daughters. She told her husband that she loved him every single night for thirty years without fail. I think that tells you all you need to know.

Trish, We love you so and will always miss you dearly. We are all so happy that we got to spend a little time with you spinning around on this little blue marble together. You were always such a sweet, sweet little soul.

More information here.

[scroller style=”sc1″ title=”Obituaries” display=”cats” cats=”8394″ number_of_posts=”4″ speed=”300″]