Patti Morton never stayed in one place for more than a decade or so but made friends wherever she went, her family said. She remained active, whether golfing, bowling, skiing, traveling, playing bridge, or watching her favorite sports team, the Buffalo Bills.
A 1956 graduate of East Hampton High School, where she played the flute in the school band and was a member of the cheerleading team, she went on to have a career as an elementary school teacher.
Most recently of Shelburne, Vt., Mrs. Morton died on Sept. 21 at the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vt. The cause was heart failure. She was 85.
Born Patricia Jewels in Southampton on May 7, 1939, to Frank J. Jewels and the former Katherine (Kay) Vail, she grew up there, on Meadow Way. Her mother was a hairdresser and her father a plumber whose business, Grant and Jewels Plumbing and Heating, still exists today, under the ownership of cousins, as Grant Heating and Cooling.
She loved children from an early age and would work summers as a nanny, her family said.
After high school, she went to Syracuse University, from which she graduated early with a degree in education. It was there that she met Richard A. Morton. They married in June 1959 and moved to California while he served in the Army.
Although she left East Hampton after college, Mrs. Morton “talked a lot about the East End” and brought her family for visits every year, said her son, Rick Morton of Williston, Vt.
As a mother, “she was always there and raised us the right way,” he said. She also played an active role in raising her two grandchildren following the death of her son-in-law, Steve Napolitano, in 2003.
Her husband died in 2020. In addition to her son and his wife, Michele, Mrs. Morton leaves a daughter, Jennifer Napolitano, and her partner, Jeff Knox, of Danvers, Mass. Her granddaughters, Miranda Napolitano and Francesca Napolitano, also survive, as does Francesca’s husband, Jamie Catalan.
Mrs. Morton was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans, Vt. Her family has suggested memorial donations to the cemetery at P.O. Box 920, St. Albans, Vt. 05478, or to the First Congregational Church of St. Albans, of which she was a congregant, at 27 Church Street.
