Patricia Veal Schepens

Pattie Schepens, beloved wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother, died Saturday, July 15, in Ponte Vedra, Fla. She was 75 years old.

Pattie was a bedouin of the U.S. military and a tenacious cancer fighter whose deep Christian faith radiated in everything she did.

Born in Fort Myer, Va., Patricia Mary Veal Schepens traveled the world from a young age. From her father, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. William W. Veal, she acquired an independent and adventuring spirit. From her mother, Patricia Sneed, she inherited an easy elegance and a deep love of books. She spent part of her childhood freewheeling around post-war Germany and France with her younger sister, Melinda. In a testimony to the steadfast friendships she kept even as she picked up and moved every few years, Pattie stayed in touch with the family’s housekeeper until Thérèse’s recent death.

She graduated from Fort Hunt High School in Alexandria, Va., in 1966 and went on to study education at the University of New Mexico. While home at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base the summer after her freshman year, she attended a dance for visiting Air Force Academy cadets. She and William Schepens both listed specific requests about who, on the other side of the wall separating the women from the men, they should be paired with. She said: “Make sure I get someone tall.” He said: “Pick me a good one.” The pairing that night in Dayton, Ohio, would last 56 years and one day.

Willie and Pattie Schepens married in an outdoor ceremony in Sacramento three years later. The day was so sweltering the candles on the altar drooped. The couple was glowing, surrounded by family and ready for the lifetime of adventure that awaited them.

As the Schepens moved and Willie built his career in the Air Force, eventually retiring as a colonel, Pattie was a steady, quiet hand. Like her gift for gardening, she helped her family flourish. Giving up teaching to stay at home and raise their three children, Dan, Beth and Amy, she filled their home—wherever it was—with fun and laughter. There was never a craft or a fort that didn’t get built, a cookie that didn’t get baked, or a children’s Bible song that didn’t get sung. Her husband, children and, later, grandchildren, were her greatest joy. And, one could argue, her greatest legacy.

Pattie became a Christian not long after marrying Willie, and her faith was the guiding force in her life and the life of her family. She was quick to give her time, energy and money to others. Her friendships were deep and long-lasting. She spent years teaching others her love of God’s word in Bible Study Fellowship, church small groups and in everyday conversations. And in recent years, as she battled lung disease and terminal blood cancer, she radiated a hard-won trust in the goodness of God and spoke at every turn of His love and provision. “May you see God at work in you and for you,” she wrote in a recent text to her daughter.

Pattie is survived by her husband, Willie; her children, Dan Schepens and his wife, Ana, Beth Schepens, Amy Fuqua and her husband, G.W.; and her seven grandchildren, Grace, Will and John Schepens and Elena, Adele, Ariana and Ethan Fuqua.