Carolyn Mauk Patton, of Chicago, a native of Martinsville, IL, passed away Tuesday, March 6, 2012, in her lakeshore home of some 50 years, following a long illness. She was 83.


Born September 29, 1928, in Martinsville, she was the daughter of Guy Mauk, local pharmacist and president of the State Bank, and Vivian Waldrop Mauk, who taught primary first and/or second grades for about 40 years.


She was a graduate of Indiana State University, followed by advance study in business administration. She was retired as executive secretary to the president of two major coal conglomerates, Truax-Traer and Consolidation, headquartered in Chicago’s downtown Loop.


Her hobby was zoology, and she served as a volunteer docent guide at the city’s world-famous Lincoln Park Zoo. When asked once in a television interview about her move-frequent question, she got a laugh by replying “Quick! Where’s the nearest restroom?”


She held season tickets to the Chicago Bears for more than 50 years, many of them in the Cubs’ Wrigley Field, where the Bears played before their move to Soldier Field in 1971. Her fondest memories were the 1965 day when she watched the Bears great running back Gayle Sayers score six touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers, and when the Bears won the Super Bowl from the New England Pats in the 1985-86 season.


Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Mary Ellen Nelson, once chief accountant for the University of Illinois Chicago campus; and her husband of 40 years, John Patton, a noted combustion engineer our of Cornell University.


She is survived by a brother, William Mauk, an Indiana University journalist now retired in Martinsville from a career as a public relations executive in AT&Ts Illinois Bell Company, Chicago, and three nieces, Dr. Susan Clark, Christine Smith, and Laurel Mauk, all of California.


Locally, she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Masonic Eastern Star and the Martinsville United Methodist Church.


Cremation was chosen. Interment will be in Martinsville’s Ridgelawn Cemetery. There will be no public services or visitation. Greenwell Funeral Home coordinated local arrangements.