Obituaries

Patricia Harris Chapman

Patricia Harris Chapman, age 98, died peacefully Thursday, Nov. 15, at the end of a long, happy and well-lived life. She was the daughter of Col. Patrick Candler Harris and Marvelle Shue Harris and was born in Beebe. Preceding her in death were her husband, James Scott Chapman, a World War II veteran, and her brother, Dr. Sam Clement Harris. Pat graduated from Beebe High School and was Miss Beebe. She attended Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas). She married Scott Chapman on Aug. 6, 1945, and she and Scott lived in several cities in the South while he was an executive with Allstate Insurance: Natchez and Jackson, Miss.; Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta and Houston. After Scott's retirement, they settled in Eden Isle outside Heber Springs, where they both enjoyed the golf at the Red Apple Inn Country Club. Pat took up the game when they arrived on Eden Isle in 1970, and she eventually became the club's Ladies Golf Champion. Friends knew her as an entertaining hostess, greeting everyone with her warm smile and friendly personality. Pat enjoyed a good party and wanted everyone else to enjoy it, too, be it in her home or on her and Scott's party barge on Greers Ferry Lake. Both Pat and Scott were very active in their church and were founding members of St. Francis Episcopal Church. Pat served on the Altar Guild and the vestry. Pat was the last surviving founding member of St. Francis. She also volunteered at the Humane Society in Heber Springs. She loved all of her many dogs and cats over the years. She brought the first Lhasa Apso to Arkansas when she and Scott relocated from Houston. Pat was in the Daughters of the American Revolution through her father's family, longtime residents in south Arkansas. Her grandfather, Sam Harris, was the Lafayette County sheriff. Her great-grandfather died at the battle of Antietam, serving with an Alabama regiment. Pat remained in her home on Eden Isle for 46 years, until moving in 2016 to Hot Springs with her sister-in-law, Peggy Harris, to be near family. Her niece, Julie Harris Sanders, and her nephews, James P. Harris (wife Tricia) and Stephen C. Harris (wife Loretta), were like her children. She loved them like her own, as she did her great-nieces, Sarah Sanders and Catherine Harris, and her great-nephews, William Sanders, Scott Harris and Sam Harris. When she could no longer play golf, she became bored and went to work at Panache, the Aromatique gift shop in Heber Springs, where she worked for 10 years, until she was 85. She so loved the girls who worked in the shop, and the money she made at Panache was given directly to the church she helped start, St. Francis. Pat was a very talented artist, creating oil paintings of the beautiful landscapes that surrounded the Greers Ferry area. She shared her work with family and friends, as well as donated to several charitable auctions. Even up to her last days, Pat was the life of the party at The Caring Place of Hot Springs, where she would entertain the staff by dancing the two-step. The family would like to thank Pat's special caregivers, Cheryl Kapella, Beckey Haight and Melinda Allen, as well as Arkansas Hospice and The Caring Place of Hot Springs, for the outpouring of love and care they gave her these last two years. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 30, beginning at 2 p.m. at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Heber Springs, Ark. If anyone would like to send a memorial, please send to St. Francis Episcopal Church of Heber Springs, The Caring Place of Hot Springs or Arkansas Hospice. Arrangements are by Olmstead Funeral Home. www.olmstead.cc.

Published November 25, 2018

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