Patrice Dianne Pair, 80, passed away peacefully, on Sunday, August 24, 2025, just two days before her 81st birthday, from complications following a fall. Her beloved husband, Jim Pair, was at her side, as he had been throughout their nearly 32 years of marriage. 

Born August 26, 1944, in Lansing, Michigan, Patrice -- affectionately known to her family as Bece -- was the second child of Marjorie and Charles Lynch. Three more siblings soon followed. Later, two half-siblings joined the boisterous brood. 

Patrice and her siblings were reared in a noisy and loving home in Canoga Park, California. After graduating from Canoga Park High School, Patrice married and gave birth to a daughter, Lisa Ramsey Fraley (Chiarella), and a son, Scott Keith Fraley.  She worked as a secretary for most of her professional life.  

In the early 1970s, Patrice moved to Germany with her then-husband, John Wheeler, whose family had lived next door to the family's Canoga Park home. Her son, Jason Wheeler, was born in Germany. The family later moved to Fairbanks, Alaska and eventually settled in Port Aransas, Texas. 

In Texas, Patrice found the love of her life, Jim Pair, who was immediately drawn to the statuesque, stylish, beautiful woman he met at the office.  They married in Corpus Christi in 1993 and were inseparable throughout the rest of Patrice's life.  

Patrice had passions: she loved animals, fine gemstones (she could identify most of the ones on display in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum), stylish handbags and good food. Passionate about cosmetics, Patrice was a skilled amatuer makeup artist. Her sisters loved having her help them with their makeup and hair. Through the years, she showered her sisters and nieces with birthday and special occasion presents of gorgeous jewelry and handbags from her collection.

Whether baking a rum cake and shipping it overnight to a brother-in-law, sending cards and gifts to her ever-expanding family, reupholstering a sister's frayed dining room chairs or balancing a sibling's checkbook, Patrice was generous with her time and attention. She was smart and funny, compassionate and empathetic.  

Patrice leaves behind a large family that already misses her terribly and cannot imagine a world without her. In addition to her children, Lisa, Scott and Jason, and grandchildren, Dylan, Nicole and Max Chiarella, there are her bereft siblings -- Neldena Anderson, Michael Lynch, Lynn Heckert, Mary Curtius and Edward Curtius, Jr. Her brother, Curt Lynch, predeceased her. 

Also mourning their loss are Patrice's  nieces and nephews: Regina Rollins, Mathew Horstman, Shannon Makuakane, Ryan Lynch, Noa  and Maya Patrice Nir, and Hanna and Samuel Curtius, her great nephews, Adam Rollins and Charles Makuakane, and great-nieces,  Carolyn Makuakane and Dakota Ann Lynch. Her brothers-in-law, Bo Heckert and Ori Nir, and her sisters-in-law, Mary Lou Lynch and Colette Curtius, are also grieving. The family is making plans to come together and bury Patrice's ashes in Oregon in the near future.

There will be less laughter in our lives without Patrice, but she will forever be in our hearts.

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