Uncrowned Community Builders

Vernette Coles Patterson was born August 2, 1925, in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. She attended Elementary and High Schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She also attended Mercy Hospital and School for Nurses in Philadelphia from 1943 to 1945. She was married in 1946 to the late James Patterson. His work with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers brought them to Buffalo in the 1960s. After her move to Buffalo, she attended Millard Fillmore College at the University at Buffalo.

Mrs. Paterson worked at Buffalo General Hospital for more than 40 years, starting as a research technician in 1972. She worked for almost thirty years as a Cardiopulmonary Technologist in the Angiology Department of Buffalo General Hospital, Diagnostic Cardiovascular Laboratory before her retirement in 1972. Following her retirement, she was a Research Technician at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo General Hospital before a second retirement in 1987. She was a member of the National Society of Cardiopulmonary Technologists, Inc.

Her civic and service organization affiliations included the East Side Community Organization, Inc., ESCO Board of Director, Planned Parenthood of Buffalo, Inc. Board of Directors, and the Westminster Community House, Inc., Board of Directors. She was a member of the Buffalo Chapter of The Links, Incorporated for almost fifty years. She also was a long-time member of the African Cultural Center, the Buffalo Negro Scholarship Foundation, the Buffalo Federation of Women's Clubs, Women in Community Service (WICS), the Research Institute on Alcoholism's Committee on Human Subjects, Board of Directors of Black Dance Workshop, Inc., Buffalo General Hospital's Institutional Review Board, National Conference for Community Justice Board Member, and a volunteer for Women for Human Rights and Dignity (WHRD). Mrs. Patterson was also a member of the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. , a Life member of the NAACP , a volunteer for the Deaconess Center and a member of the National Society of Cardiopulmonary Technologists, Inc.
Mrs. Patterson was a member of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church where she was active for over thirty years. Throughout her membership she served in many of the church's organizations and participated as a member of several choirs.

She and the late James Patterson had two children, Gregory James and Kevin LeRoy. Mr. Patterson died in 1988. Mrs. Patterson moved in 2005 to Charlotte, North Carolina to be closer to her sons. She died on December 10, 2008 and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.