Ione Hickman Patton, age 93 years, 10 months, and 25 days, passed away Saturday, October 12, 2013 in Somerset, Kentucky.
Funeral services were held Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 1:00 pm at the St Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Somerset, Kentucky. Burial followed in the Pine Knot Cemetery.
She was born November 17, 1919 in the Yamacraw Hilltop community in McCreary County, Kentucky to Albert Hickman and Nola White Hickman. Ione attended Sullivan Business School in Louisville after graduating high school.
She was an avid gardener and outdoors woman who loved fishing. Ione was the true definition of an altruistic woman who was committed to serving her community in Stearns, Pine Knot, and Louisville. She had served as the President of the Stearns School Board in the Stearns school district, President of the Stearns PTA, and a member of the Business and Professional Women’s club. She was a member of the Kentucky-Indiana Herb Society and of the Laurel Heights Chapter 288 Order of the Eastern Star where she served as Worthy Matron from 1964 until 1965. She attended Stearns First Baptist Church and St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Somerset.
Ione met her beloved husband, John Warren Patton, during WWII while working on the Manhattan Project, a project that built the first atomic bomb that eventually ended WWII. She also served as a navigator for the Women’s Air Corp during the war. She and John were wed in April 1945 in Amarillo, Texas and enjoyed 65 years of marriage before his death in 2010. After their retirement, the couple enjoyed travelling to many countries.
Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband, brothers, Max “Tubby” Hickman and Harold J. Hickman, her twin sister, Leone Prater, and sister, Mildred Worley, and John’s brothers and sisters to whom she was a beloved sister-in-law.
Survivors include her children, Dr. John A. L. Patton and his wife, Deborah, of Somerset, Kentucky, and Rebecca Patton Dixon and her husband, Major Jerry Dixon, USMC Retired, of Stafford, Virginia, grandchildren, Amelia Patton Gatewood, Brian and Katy Patton, and Scott Dixon and his wife, Nicole, great grandchildren, Hunter Gentry Gatewood, Aaron Dixon, and Jackson Dixon, and many loving nieces and nephews. Her family gave her great joy and happiness over the years.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, or the American Lymphoma Association.
Hickman-Strunk Funeral Home served the family of Ione Patton.
Charitable donations may be made in Ione's memory to the following organizations:
American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org
20 Speen St., Framingham, MA. 01701-4688
Tel: Tel: 800 662 1701

American Lung Association
http://www.lungma.org
460 Totten Pond Rd., Suite 400, Waltham, MA 02451
Tel: 781 890 4262

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