Patricia C. Stix

Patricia Castle Stix died in White Plains Hospital on Dec. 21, 2020, the winter solstice. The darkest day in the year in the Northern Hemisphere also marks the beginning of the slow daily march toward longer days and new light. Pat's life as well marked a gradual series of personal transitions to a maturity and sophistication in which she and her home became the center of a family comprised of three children, seven grandchildren and, for the past five years, a great grand-grandson.

Pat was born in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 13, 1928, a year when television was starting its first scheduled programming and Herbert Hoover trounced Alfred E. Smith in the presidential election. She grew up and spent most of her life in Westchester County-North White Plains, Greenburgh and, in her later years, White Plains. The Great Depression hung heavily over Pat's family. Her father John "Jack" Castle tided the family through as he was making his slow rise up the ranks at New York Central Railroad. The polio epidemic shadowed the children.

In 1952, she was introduced to Robert Stix, a successful, self-made businessman, through a family connection and the couple soon married, lived for a time in Elmsford before moving to a house directly behind Pat's parents in Greenburgh.

Pat coped with a lung condition for many years. But she always displayed a natural elegance in both her bearing and dress and had a deep affinity for dance and museums. In later years, she had grown into a woman that family members would constantly visit and call for consultation and discussion on even the most erudite aspects of world and cultural affairs. Into her 90s, she read The New York Times from front to back each day-and woe be it to a child or grandchild who got their facts wrong about the latest development in presidential politics or some aspect of the arts, only to be corrected by the far older and wiser member of the family. Pat was an avid contributor to organizations ranging from Médecins sans Fronti&egraveres to White Plains Hospital to WNET to the Feeding Westchester food bank.

Pat is survived by three children-Ellen, Chris and Gary Stix; seven grandchildren, Dariush and Nina Naghshineh, Eric, Jeffrey and Robyn Stix; and Benjamin and Madeleine Stix and a great grand-child, Leo Stix. Also surviving is her brother, Gary Castle.

Donations can be sent in place of flowers to Feeding Westchester at https://feedingwestchester.org/ . Address: Feeding Westchester, 200 Clearbrook Rd., Elmsford, N.Y. 10523. (914) 923-1100.