Obituary: Pat Stevenson, 87, of Ludington

Patricia Stevenson

Pat Stevenson, of Ludington, passed away peacefully, with family at her bedside, on April 26, 2024.  The cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease.  She was 87 years old.

Born Patricia Joan Willemin on January 5, 1937 in Detroit, to Amedeus and Margaret (Treharne) Willemin, Pat grew up in a close-knit family with four siblings.  Known in those days as “Patty Jo” or “Patsy,” she graduated from Blessed Sacrament High School in Detroit.  In 1956, she married Gene Stevenson, and within a few years they were raising five children in Detroit.

In 1971, the family moved to Ludington, and for more than 50 years Pat was an indomitable force for good in the community.  She will long be remembered by those to whom she taught basketball fundamentals, good sportsmanship, and positive attitudes while coaching them to fifth and sixth grade championships – both girls’ teams and boys’ teams.  She will be remembered, too, by the many whose young lives she touched as a volunteer tutor, helping them to develop the skill and confidence to read and to find joy in doing so.  She contributed countless volunteer hours to the work of St. Simon Church with Hospitality INC, helping with daily dinners and organizing volunteers.

Pat was also an accomplished, life-long, all-around athlete, relishing the joy of competition and self-improvement well into her later years.  She excelled at basketball, distance running, and bowling, loved softball and golf, and was a late-life CrossFit and pickleball enthusiast.

Pat had a successful professional side as well.  She spent many years as an administrator in the admissions department at Ludington’s Memorial Hospital and many more years as an office manager at Merdel Manufacturing, maker of Carrom games, where she worked until retirement.

More than anything else, Pat was a vibrant, loving, engaged, and supportive daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother, who also cultivated and nurtured decades-long close friendships.  She will be dearly missed  by those she leaves behind, but she will be joyfully welcomed by those who have gone before.

Pat is survived by her children Michael Stevenson (and Rocio) of Washington, D.C., Catherine Peterson (and Scott) of Wellston, Debby Stevenson of Ludington, and Teri Branch (and Michael) of Portage; her sisters Mary Pattison of Clinton Township and Kathryn Anadein of Dayton, Ohio; 16 grandchildren whose lives she touched deeply;  18 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Gene E. Stevenson; a son, Daniel E. Stevenson; a grandson, Michael VanderKolk; and her brothers Thomas Willemin and Philip Willemin.

Prior to her passing, Pat received the sacrament of Last Rites from Father Wayne Wheeler of St. Simon Catholic Church in Ludington. No service is planned, and Pat’s remains will sit alongside her husband’s and her son’s at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington, facing the Lake Michigan sunsets she loved.

The family encourages those wishing to honor Pat to consider making a contribution in her memory to the Lakeshore Food Club in Ludington or to one of the many research institutions engaged in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Those wishing to offer private condolences or memories to family members may contact them through Oak Grove Funeral Home of Ludington.

Arrangements were entrusted to Oak Grove Funeral Home of Ludington, www.OakGroveLudington.com.