Patricia McGehee Bush

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Sept. 12, 1925 – Oct. 16, 2016

MEADVILLE — Memorial services for Patricia McGehee Bush, 91, (affectionately known by family and friends as Pat of Patsy) of Bethesda, Md., who died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016, at her residence, will be 1 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church of Meadville.   
Burial will follow at Midway Cemetery with the ashes of her husband, Bill, under the direction of Franklin Funeral Home in Meadville.
Visitation will be from noon until service time at the church.
Mrs. Bush was born Sept. 12, 1925, in Meadville, the fourth daughter of Daniel and Dorothy McGehee.
Mrs. Bush’s father, Daniel Rayford McGehee, served Mississippi as representative in the Mississippi State House and State Senate and was elected as a member of U.S. Congress from 1935, during the “Roosevelt Years” through 1947, after the World War II. Congressman McGehee also founded McGehee, McGehee and Torrey, DR McGehee Insurance Agency and The Bank of Franklin. Dorothy Hunt McGehee of Cuthbert, Ga., was a passionate violinist and horsewoman, raising Pat and her three older sisters on the family’s plantation, Rio Vista.
Growing up in the small town of Meadville, Pat learned solid small-town values and developed her southern charm that we all knew and loved. As a child, she enjoyed spending time with her beloved family, riding horses, playing tennis and baseball.
Pat was in the fourth grade when her father was elected to Congress. What a life change that was — moving from a small town to Washington, D.C., where the family lived at the Wardman Park Hotel. For a number of years, Pat traveled back-and-forth between Mississippi and Washington, while Congress was in and out of session. Pat always said she “lived the best of both worlds.” She made her debut in Jackson and lived in Washington during the exciting years.
She graduated from Holton-Arms School in Washington, attended Rollins College and graduated from the George Washington University. Pat loved life and was always adventurous. She learned to fly airplanes and completed her solo cross-country flight while in college. She was a competitive tennis player and a formidable opponent. As a member of Congressional Country Club, she won the Congressional Tennis Championship for a number of years, numerous national and local tournaments and was always the first one to be chosen as a doubles partner for Embassy Tournaments in Washington.
On Sept. 10, 1947, Pat married her soul mate, William Reeves Bush Jr. Bill was a naval aviator serving in World War II and later a prominent executive of a Fortune 500 company and president of Congressional Country Club. It was love at first sight and the pair enjoyed 52 wonderful years of marriage together until Bill passed away in May 2000. They lived in Columbia when they were first married after the war and he flew charter cargo flights to the U.S. She returned from Columbia with Pepe, a monkey that lived at Rio Vista for a number of years until retiring to the Jackson Zoo. She and Bill loved traveling the world and divided their time between Washington and their second home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
For the past 32 years, Pat served on the board of directors of The Bank of Franklin, the bank her father founded more than 100 years ago. She served on the board of the National Women’s Symphony, the Women of Arts Museum, The Society of Arts and Letters and was a proud member of The American Clan Gregor Society.
Pat Bush will be remembered for her beautiful manners, lovely looks and disarmingly, charming demeanor.
She was preceded in death by her parents and four sisters, Dean McGehee Black, Dannye Moselle McGehee, Dorothy Ann McGehee Scarbrough and Gloria McGehee.
Survivors include two daughters, Danielle Bush Ayre and Dorothea Bush Frye and husband, Larry, and four grandchildren, Alexandra Danielle Frye, William Hunt Frye and wife, Kim, Taylor Noelle Ayre and Daniel Edward Bush Ayre.