Patricia McCaleb

Patricia (Pat) McCaleb died Thursday, December 7, 2023 with family around her. She would like everyone to know that she had a phenomenal life. 

Roy and Helen Naron were the proud parents. She was born in her grandparents' home on Victoria Avenue in Cleveland, MS, March 26, 1936. 

Pat and Jim Hunter McCaleb met when she was twelve and he was fifteen. They went to Cleveland High School where he was a football, basketball, and track star. They had a long courtship and married in Cleveland at First United Methodist Church on August 9th, 1958. She became a nurse, graduating from University of Tennessee Memphis, and he became a coach, graduating from Delta State University.

God gave them two smart, beautiful, and caring daughters. Caryn married Mike Brister and gave them Naron, who married Jason Remillard and Collins Hunter, who gave Pat her first great-grandchild, Emma Lou. Cristyn Hunter, their second daughter, married Bruce Holder. Their children were Cade and Caleb Holder. Caleb married Cassie Valle.

The grandchildren named her Mama Pat. The children thought of her as a prayer warrior, good cook, great hugger, and a supporter of all of their activities. In 1961, Pat’s Nursery opened and operated on Victoria Avenue for 40 years. Family was her pride and joy. She provided a table of twelve for lunch every Sunday after church until she was eighty years-old. She loved to cook.

Her favorite color was red and she said that was why she loved watermelon and tomatoes so much. She kept them in her refrigerator all summer—Jim Hunter grew the tomatoes in his garden for her. In 1962, the couple bought a home on Victoria Avenue right next door to her grandparent’s home where she was born. She lived there for sixty years. Jim Hunter died January 13, 2021, after sixty-two years of marriage.

Pat received many awards but the two she cherished most were being named an all-star basketball player under the coaching of Margaret Wade; and, being named Nurse of the Year for the state of Mississippi. She served as the director of nurses at the Bolivar County Hospital for 22 years.

She and Jim Hunter loved to dance to their 50s music. They were still dancing in their eighties. She continued to play records such as Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland, etc., until her death.

In 2022, she moved to her joyful home on Cristyn and Bruce’s property. She lovingly referred to the space as “Mama Pat’s Cottage.”

In entertainment, she loved television’s Hallmark movies and sports such as Duke basketball, the Dallas Cowboys, and all Mississippi State University sports. Other enjoyments were crosswords and jig-saw puzzles. Every three weeks, she went to the library and checked out six books. Due to her love of reading, she requests memorials be sent to the Robinson-Carpenter Memorial Library to purchase large print books.

She was a member of First United Methodist Church all her life where memorials may be sent to the Methodist Men for the Jim Hunter McCaleb scholarship fund. Establishing the prayer chain, cooking for 60+, and teaching Sunday School were her loves. Most of all, she loved God. Her favorite Bible verse was Phillipians 4:13: “All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me.”

She is asking that no-one wear black to the funeral. This is not a time for mourning, but a time for celebration. She has reached her goal.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Helen Naron; her husband, James Hunter McCaleb; and her daughter, Caryn Brister. Visitation will be held at the Ray Funeral Home in Cleveland on Sunday, December 10, from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, followed by a graveside service at New Cleveland Cemetery at 3:00 pm. Donations in her memory can be sent to Friends of the Bolivar County Library System at 104 S. Leflore Ave. in Cleveland, or First Methodist Church at 318 S. Court Street in Cleveland, MS.