Patricia Ligon Murfee

Patricia Ligon Murfee, 85, passed away September 17, 2024. She was preceded in death by parents, Catherine Danley and Henry Hagerman Ligon, siblings Elmer Gene Ligon and Elinor Ligon Birnbaum; half siblings, Earl Ligon and John Vennie (IV) Ligon and Lillian Ligon Pratt. Surviving sibling is Evelyn Ligon Sanders. Patricia is also survived by her life-long friend and husband, James Murfee and son, Samuel Andrew Murfee. A celebration of her life may be announced later. Patricia was born in Bay County and graduated from Bay High School in 1957. She married a classmate, Jim Murfee. After a year in Chicago, the couple relocated to Atlanta where she worked some 2 years at Southern Bell Headquarters as a technician in the Engineering Department. Patricia was then assigned to a Company Vice President's office. During the next two years Patricia took her first college courses at Georgia State and helped Jim fund his education at Georgia Tech. When her Church lost its secretary, she left the Phone Company to serve in that job some two years, until Jim graduated from Tech. His engineering and construction management projects relocated the couple several times both in the States and Europe, causing Patricia to continue her studies at some five colleges, where she excelled. By the time Patricia finally graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1986 from FSU with a BS in Elementary Education, she was in her forties. For decades before she graduated and afterward, this talented woman was the primary caregiver of their disabled child and at the same time, was very active in charity work and Church service. One of her main efforts was a nascent Habitat for Humanity chapter where she was an organizing member and she took pleasure in helping build a few of its first Bay County homes. - By her early 70s Patricia began to sense her faculties were diminishing. Regardless, she continued to serve her family and others another decade or so before nature forced her to retire. She is missed.