Patricia Kinney

In the early morning hours of January 29, 2020, Patricia Kinney lost her brief battle with cancer. Patricia was born October 14, 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the late John “Jack” and Kathleen “Kay” Kinney. Her family lived in Southern Ohio and the Chicago area for a time before settling in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when she was 5 years old. In Ann Arbor, Patricia attended Saint Francis Elementary School and Saint Thomas High School where unbeknownst to her parents, she held an undefeated back road drag racing title. In 1977, she and her young family moved to the Bay Area town of Alameda, California, and eventually to Stockton, California. Patricia was a credit manager by trade, a member of the National Association of Credit Managers, and at one point served on the board of directors of the California Association of Credit Managers. At the time of her retirement, she was the International Credit Manager for a subsidiary of the Intel Corporation. Patricia spent most of her adult life as an advocate. As a mother of a daughter with Down Syndrome and a rare heart disorder, she advocated every day for proper medical care and education and instilled the sense of responsibility for advocacy in her daughters. Patricia loved to show her love for her friends and family through food and was quite the gourmet chef. She also had a razor-sharp sense of humor and a quick wit and not only loved to laugh but make all those around her laugh. She was also kind and generous, and all the friends of her daughters immediately became her children as well, right down to her sending them home from a visit with a warm fuzzy feeling and a week’s worth of leftovers. Not only did she love to laugh and cook, but she dreamed of one day being able to travel to all of the far-off countries she traveled to for work, with the intention of doing all of the tourist things she was never able to do. She also loved to garden, bake, and to read. The only thing in life she loved more than her children, were her grandchildren. It was that love of her “babies” that lead her to finally settle in the town of North Canton, Ohio, where she finished out her days close by her youngest grandchildren.

She is missed terribly and survived by her children Liz Morgan of Prattville, Alabama; Sarah Long and her husband Aaron and their children Jonathan, Aidan, and Abigail of Akron, Ohio; and Katy LaFata and her fiancé Robert Harlow and children Ariel and Makena Harlow of Stockton, California and by her sisters Kathleen Kinney of Troy, Michigan, Sheila Diamond of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Marian Kinney of Chicago, Illinois, Barbara Kinney of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Eileen Murphy of Alexandria, Virginia.

She is preceded in death by her beloved daughter Amy LaFata, and her brother John Kinney.

In lieu of flowers, her daughters are asking that a donation be made to the Special Olympics or the American Cancer Society.

Condolences and special memories may be shared at

https://www.heritagecremationsociety.com/

Heritage Cremation Society

330.875.5770