Patricia Hawkins

Patricia Kay O’Neal was born April 5, 1951, in Sacramento, California to parents Ernie O’Neal and Clare Smith O’Neal. As the youngest daughter in a military family, her early years were spent traveling from one post to the next, allowing her to experience some beautiful parts of the country (Florida, Hawaii, Texas, and then back to California where the family waited out Ernie’s three tours in Viet Nam.) She met the man who would become her husband when she was just fifteen years old and married Charlie Hawkins on June 14, 1969, two days after graduating from Santa Ana Valley High School. They were blessed with one daughter, Heather Leanne, born five years later on October 3, 1974 (sharing that special date with her Dad who was born on the same in 1946.) They lived in Arvada, Colorado for twenty-two years until an opportunity with Coors sent them to San Antonio, Texas in 1991. An offer for Charlie to work in Alabama came in 1998 after Heather had graduated from the University of Texas and taken her first job up in Jackson, Wyoming. The circle was complete when Pat and Charlie retired and returned to Colorado in 2013. Pat was an avid reader, loved taking pictures (especially at family gatherings and on camping trips and vacations); she enjoyed crafting (needlepoint, cross-stitch, ceramics, and later on, making projects from all the wine corks they had collected over the years.) Pat’s passion was spending time with her family and friends. Her life was full of love and laughter. If asked what she cherished most about her life, she would tell you, without a second’s consideration, it was having been blessed with a loving husband and daughter. Pat is survived by her husband, Charlie Hawkins, her daughter, Heather Hawkins Falk, her son-in-law, Jason Falk, her grandson, Garrett Falk, her half-sister, Jenice Smith, her sister, Michael Ann Zimmerman, and the entire O’Neal/Hawkins clan of uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews who were so beloved by Pat. Following her cremation, some of Pat’s ashes will be taken to Wyoming by Heather and dispersed in a few of her favorite places there. The rest will remain in Colorado for Charlie to scatter in the spots Pat was most fond of going. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you make a donation to HopeWest Hospice Care Center of Grand Junction, Colorado. (HopeWestCO.org) They were an essential part in Pat’s end-of-life journey and a wonderful, supportive resource for the whole family.