Cover photo for Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn's Obituary
Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn Profile Photo

Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn

August 12, 1924 — October 23, 2017

Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn

PATRICIA BERNICE INGALLS SANBORN

BETHLEHEM, NH -- Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn died at the Morrison Nursing Home in Whitefield, NH on Oct. 23, 2017, age 93. She was born on Aug. 12, 1924 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the daughter of Edmund E. and Bernice (Hayes) Ingalls. She moved at age 6 from Iowa to Albion, Michigan where she grew up and attended school. Her mother died when she was 7, leaving her father to raise her on his own (with the help of various housekeepers, who were just glad to have a place to live during the depression years) and spending summers with her grandparents in Galesburg, Illinois.

She graduated from Albion College (where her father taught Mathematics) and then earned her degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1946. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and Alpha Xi Delta Sorority.

She came to Concord, NH in the Summer of 1946 to work on the bookmobile that operated out of the State Library. They had overnight routes, where they left books at libraries, schools and community stops, first in the southern part of the state and later in the northern part. During that time, she met her future husband, Donald E. Sanborn Jr. while he was driving the bookmobile and they were married, May 21, 1949, Concord, NH.

She lived in Durham, Dover, Concord and Lancaster, NH and Winslow, Maine, moving to Bethlehem, NH after her husband's death. Library jobs were scarce, so she did other kinds of work but she did work part time at Weeks Memorial Library in Lancaster, NH and full time at an elementary school library in Maine. Her hobbies were reading, family history and walking and she also did volunteer work such as Meals on Wheels, and volunteered at a hospital, nursing home and the senior center. She was a member of Durrell Methodist Church in Bethlehem, NH.

She is survived by her children, David Sanborn and wife Nancy of Lancaster; Jonathan Sanborn of Bethlehem and James and wife Karen of Fort Collins, Colorado. Also by her grandchildren, Terri Sanborn and his wife Tammy of Lancaster and Kaitlyn Sanborn of Fort Collins, Colorado; by her great grandson, Jayce Sanborn of Lancaster and his brother, Cayden Kilby; nieces, Karen Condran, Valerie Hoffman and Nancy Swenson of the Concord, NH area.

A public memorial service will be held in the spring.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Patricia Bernice Ingalls Sanborn, please visit our flower store.

Guestbook

Visits: 16

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Send Flowers

Send Flowers

Plant A Tree

Plant A Tree