Patricia Jean Murphy Sweeney

Patricia Jean Murphy Sweeney died peacefully on July 18, 2024, in Woodway, Texas.

Pat was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on March 15, 1940. She was the first of three children of Miles “Red” and Margene “Jean” Murphy. She moved frequently in childhood as her father climbed the ranks at Montgomery Ward department store, living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Peoria and Danville, Illinois; and finally La Grange, Illinois, where she graduated from Nazareth Academy. Pat attributed her ability to make friends easily to her experience of moving every few years. Wherever she moved, she did what she needed to do to make her new home work.

Pat next attended St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, where she began many lifelong friendships. She also met her future husband, Dennis Sweeney, who was a student at Notre Dame University. She and Dennis married right after graduation, and Pat moved once again to Dennis’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cincinnati was the place Pat called home for longest, living there over 50 years. She loved her adopted hometown and again made many strong relationships and had a deep impact by building community and just getting things done.

She built a family
Although Pat’s marriage didn’t last, it did produce the proudest accomplishment of her life, her five children. Pat expected a lot from her kids and gave a lot too. She was a rock of support to them as they grew up and established homes of their own. She’d be the first to tell you about the joy of being Grandy to her 12 grandchildren. And they all have fun and funny Grandy stories to tell as well.

She built a career
Pat’s life mirrored the larger transformation of the role of women in the world. She graduated from college and got married in 1962, then started working as a high school history teacher, but she had to resign when she became pregnant. The family grew quickly, with births in 1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, and 1970. When her oldest child approached her tenth birthday, Pat was ready to take on more. She enrolled at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 1973, joining one of the earliest cohorts of women in the school. She passed the Ohio bar in 1977 and began her legal career, first at the law firm of Butkovich, Schimpf, and Luken, and culminating with 17 years at West Publishing (now Thomson Reuters) as a senior account executive for Westlaw. Her work focused on training people at law firms and law schools to access legal research online, a transformational concept at the time. While she was paving the way for the next generation of professional women, she cultivated new friendships at law school and in her career that she sustained throughout her life.

She built a community
Pat felt strongly about giving back to the community that she loved. She volunteered relentlessly, leading many organizations in Cincinnati and beyond. She was president of the board at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health. She served on the board of Women Helping Women and developed their Sunday Salon series, where she translated her social acumen into fundraising prowess. She and her friends created the Cincinnati Professional Women’s Network, which grew from four to 400 women in just a few years. And she was deeply involved at Holy Cross - Immaculata Parish in Cincinnati, where she coordinated the annual church festival, then at St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where she was on the founding parish council. Again, Pat developed and sustained many friendships through these volunteer experiences.

Pat made her last moves across the country to live near her daughter Mary Pat in Charleston, South Carolina, for 8 years, and then to live near her daughter Meg in Waco, Texas, for her final three years.

Pat’s friendship, support, love, and get-things-done approach to life enriched many and will be missed by all.

Pat is survived by her daughter Mary Pat and her husband, Tim; her daughter Meg and her husband, Robin; her son Mike and his wife, Tina; her son Tim and his wife, Mandy; her son Kevin; her twelve grandchildren, Laura, Sam, Will, Mandy, Mackenzie, Jennifer, Jeremy, Zaira, Evan, Gillian, Knox, and Mary; and her great-granddaughter, Hannah.

Services will be held in Waco, Texas, with a celebration of Pat’s life to be scheduled at a future date in Cincinnati. Anyone wishing to honor Pat can make a donation in her name to Best Buddies Maine or Mobilize Waco.