December 12, 1950- February 22, 2025

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Therese Catholic Church on March 13, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. A rosary will begin at 10 a.m. in Canton, with the Father Jesudoss Thomas S.T.L. officiating. Burial will follow in White Rose Cemetery under the direction of Hiett’s LyBrand Funeral Home, Wills Point.

Patricia Ann James Murrey, 74, passed away peacefully in the arms of her husband, Win, on Saturday February 22, 2025, at her home in Canton following a brief illness. Born in Kilgore to Dolores Marie Lastrapes and Kenneth Jack James on December 12, 1950, Pat graduated from Kilgore High School, Class of 1969, and then earned an Associate of Arts degree at Kilgore College. From 1970-75 she added BA, MS, and LLD degrees at East Texas A&M University (formerly ETSU) in Commerce where she met and later married Winston E. Murrey, Jr., on May 31, 1974. Pat had a great love of education and spent three decades teaching high school English in multiple Texas ISDs, Wills Point, Henderson HS, Tatum HS, Carthage HS, and Aledo HS.

She additionally taught Girls’ P.E. and coached high school sports at Tatum and Carthage. Retiring from teaching in 2000, Pat worked as a legal secretary for retired Judge Terry D. Bailey, G. Thomas Allison III, and Darryl Keith Law. She returned to education as academic advisor/instructor UNPR at Texas Christian University from 2001-2006.

After moving to Savannah, Georgia, in 2006, Pat worked as parish secretary at St. Frances Cabrini Church & School, 2011-2016, returning to Texas in 2017 where she permanently retired to her most favorite respite, losing herself in her beloved flowers, plants, and vegetable gardening at her home in Canton. Pat also cultivated with great love and care many precious friendships, including lifelong devotion to her close circles of Kilgore classmates and ETSU college roommates. Besides her voracious love of gardening, Pat also enjoyed cooking and spent countless hours creating southern, Cajun, and gourmet meals. She had a passion for baking and canning, joyfully sharing her delicious creations with us all.

Cooking a Thanksgiving feast on a deer-camp RV stove was a particular specialty of hers. Pat was an accomplished musician on the piano and organ and had an operatic first soprano voice that delighted all who heard her praise God in exuberant song at church. Pat volunteered at the ABC Room of Van Zandt County, an emergency resource center, funded solely by corporate sponsors and private donations, which provides for the needs of children taken into state care by CPS. Pat was passionate about the ABC room and its mission, ABC - A Better Childhood.

Besides countless hours collecting and distributing items for these children, she also served as secretary on the ABC Room Board. In her lifetime, Pat lived in Kilgore, Wills Point, Carthage, Henderson, Azle, Savannah (Georgia), and Canton. She was an active church member in every parish she joined. Through the years, she served as church organist; St. Therese Lector, reading scripture during Mass; as a member of St. Therese Ladies Guild; and worked tirelessly in the kitchen chopping and cooking for every spaghetti dinner, tamale sale, pie bake, and luncheon.

Those of us who had the honor and great privilege of knowing Pat were graced and ever entertained by her engaging personality, acerbic wit, and easygoing southern hospitality. She was a gifted conversationalist and a prolific, life-long card and letter writer. We will miss the cards, and we will all profoundly miss our Pat… until we meet again.

Pat is survived by her loving husband, Winston Murrey, Jr. of Canton. By her cherished family: sisters Staci (Donna) Landers, Bradenton, Florida; Jeanie Whitsel and husband, Benjamin, Fort Wayne, Indiana; brother, Danny Brasher and wife, Penny, Tyler; uncle and aunt, Gerald and Katherine Miller, Kilgore; nephews, Thomas and Christopher Brasher, Kilgore, TX. By her husband’s adoring family: brothers-in-law, Tim Murrey and wife, Kathy, Ben Wheeler, Mike Murrey and wife, Cindy, The Woodlands; sister-in-law, Susan Murrey Davies and husband, John, Brenham; nephews, Matthew Murrey and wife, Ashley, Benbrook, J.T. Murrey, Jr., Tomball; Josh Murrey and wife, Katy, Mansfield, Adam Murrey and wife, Chrisse, Van; nieces, Stephanie Murrey Alonso and husband, Mike, Pearland; Melissa Murrey Sandoval and husband, Matt, Carrollton; great nieces and nephews, Madelynn and Sara Alonso, Winston and Patrick Murrey, Aidan Murrey, Alessandra and Isabella Murrey, Colton Wiles and Loghan Murrey, and Brooke and Landon Sandoval, and by her many treasured friends.

Pat was preceded in death by an infant sister, Barbara Lynn Brasher, beloved stepfather Marion ‘M.J.’ Brasher; mother, Dolores Marie Lastrapes Brasher; father, Kenneth Jack James; brother-in-law, Steve Murrey; nephew, John Patrick Murrey, and niece, Kelly Murrey Jackson.

Memorial contributions may be made to the ABC Room of Van Zandt County, P.O. Box 195, Wills Point, Texas 75169