Patricia (Larson) Zenone

Patricia L. Zenone, 88, of Bluffton, South Carolina, died Monday, March 4, 2024 after a brief illness, with her family by her side.

Patricia was born September, 1935 to Lester C. Larson and Margaret Coleman in Ridgway Pennsylvania. Her childhood home was one of the first to have a television set as her father worked at the Sylvania Electronics plant in Warren, Pennsylvania. Her father was a singer and the home was very musical and by the time Patty was a 12-year-old soprano, she was already singing regularly on the radio.

Patricia attended music school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she met her future husband, Frederick Zenone. After performing the role of Fiona MacLaren in Brigadoon, graduating in ‘57, and a few seasons of regional theatre in the Philly, Princeton, Bucks County area, the couple moved to Washington D.C. with their three young sons when her husband became a cellist with The National Symphony. Pat’s sons would tour Europe in the DC Youth Orchestra Program.

Pat began a fulfilling career as a music teacher at Flint Hill Elementary School in Vienna Virginia, for more than 35 years. She made music central to the school and designed the school-wide celebration of Patriots which is still an annual tradition. Being a teacher was a great joy for Pat and she made many lifelong friends in the Fairfax County school system.

Pat enjoyed traveling the world, occasionally accompanying her husband on tour with the National Symphony Orchestra, and was a state dinner guest of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos at the Malacañang Palace in Manila, the Imperial Palace in Tokyo Japan and of both the George Bush and Ronald Reagan Whitehouses.

After retiring from Fairfax County schools, Pat and Fred retired to Sun City Hilton Head to enjoy the weather and daily tennis. She quickly discovered a new period of singing as a soprano chorus member and President of the Sun City Chorus and Orchestra. Retirement was a particularly happy period of Pat’s life as she was singing constantly and performing in musicals in such roles as Madame Ernestine von Liebedich in Little Mary Sunshine, Lady Thiang in The King and I and Irene Molloy in Hello Dolly! Even up to a week before she passed, Pat and her youngest son, Eric would daily play piano and sing together.

Pat is preceded in death by her husband Frederick. She is survived by her three sons, Eric, Brian, Mark and daughter-in-law Julia, three granddaughters, Carlotta Zenone and mother Hélene Bremond, Isabel Garey and husband Mike, Jackie Martin and husband Casey, a great-grandson, Percy, brother William Larson and SIL Delinda Layne Larson, niece Alicia Adams and husband Kyle, great nephew, Henry, nephew Justin Larson and wife Emily and great nieces Caitriona Reiss, August Raen Larson & Kellie Cascade Larson.

A memorial with live music will be announced later this year when Pat and Fred are interred together in Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery in an area of the cemetery that has many live outdoor musical concerts.

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