Catherine LeDuke

Visitation will be held at the Tiptonville chapel of Dyersburg Funeral Home at 405 Church St. in Tiptonville from 5-8 p.m. today. The funeral will be at Tiptonville First Presbyterian Church Saturday, May 9, at 1 p.m.
The family requests that donations be made to the James Neville and Catherine LeDuke Scholarship Fund at Lake County High School in Tiptonville.
For almost 40 years she was part of a team known simply as “Miss Catherine and Mr. James Neville.” Her husband, James Neville, preceded her in death in 1977.
Miss Catherine was a revered teacher to more than one generation of students at both Tiptonville and Lake County high schools, a mentor to a long list of students who followed her example and became teachers themselves and an inspiration to the congregation at her beloved First Presbyterian Church in Tiptonville, where she was an elder.
Following her retirement in the early 1980s, she took up the hobby of photography and was rarely seen after that without a camera in her hand. Catherine was a 50-year member of the Order of Eastern Star, a lifetime member of Delta Kappa Gamma, an active member of the Lake County Historical Society and the first chairperson of the Lake County Primary Care Center. She was also West Tennessee’s first inductee into the Tennessee Teacher’s Hall of Fame.
Catherine was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, daughter of Clarence R. Patty and Mary Reder Patty.
Catherine graduated as valedictorian from the former Humes High School in Memphis in 1933, received her bachelor’s degree from the former State Teacher’s College (Memphis State) in 1936, and returned in 1955 to accept her master’s degree in education.
She leaves a daughter, Cathie Locher of Dyersburg; two sons, Jimmy LeDuke of Ellenwood, Ga., and Richard LeDuke of Baton Rouge, La., and a very special “daughter,” Nettie Sue Hurst of Tiptonville. She also leaves 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. She is survived, as well, by her “younger” brother, Clarence R. Patty Jr.
Her sister, Mary Elizabeth, preceded her in death.
Condolences may be left at www.dyersburgfuneralhome.net.