Obituary: Patricia A. (Lamey) Rohman, 90, Of Weston

Information and Photo Courtesy Bouton Funeral Home

WESTON, CT — Patricia A. Rohman (nee Lamey) died at age 90 at her daughter and son-in-law’s home in Leesville, South Carolina on June 27.

She was predeceased by her husband of 57 years, Paul J. Rohman Jr., who died in 2010, and her son, James M. Rohman, who died in 2022.

Her life took her from the Midwest to the Northeast to the South.

She was born December 15, 1932, in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Anna Geneva (nee Teefey), a native of Springfield, Illinois and Thomas F. Lamey, a native of Hannibal, Missouri. Her mother was a nurse in obstetrics at the local hospital. Her father was a salesman and World War I veteran. She was raised by her mom after her father died suddenly when she was ten years old. A beloved sister ten years her senior, Joyce, had died tragically a year earlier of tuberculosis at the age of 22.

When Pat was a sophomore in high school, she met her future husband in typing class at Cathedral High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Paul was a grade ahead of her. Upon graduation, she attended Aquinas College to study her first love music. While Paul had been accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, at the last minute he switched and attended Notre Dame (class of 1954) to be nearer to her. He proposed at the Grotto at Notre Dame. They married in 1953.

Upon college graduation, Paul served in the Navy Supply Corp in Athens, Georgia. They were subsequently stationed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where the first of seven children was born. Later, Paul’s work in the service and civilian world took them back to their home state of Michigan and to the cities of Wyandotte and Riverview, where a second son and four daughters were born. In the early sixties, they moved to Park Ridge, Illinois. There they welcomed another daughter and their last child.

A job opportunity in 1968 took them East where they settled for decades in the beautiful town of Weston, Connecticut and raised their children.

With boundless energy and dedication, everything Pat did was times seven. Schools, teachers, homework, doctor appointments, braces, outfits, proms, sports, meals, and ferrying everyone about. She loved New England and Weston, where the kids thrived. The annual Memorial Day parade was a favorite. Another was playing paddle tennis in the winters and swimming, tennis and 4th of July picnics and fireworks in the summers at the Weston Field Club. She had fun working the concessions as a member of the Boosters Club at Weston High School and cheering from the stands and sidelines with other parents at football, soccer, basketball, tennis, swim, volleyball and softball games. Home was a magnet for many gatherings, both planned and impromptu. Christmases and birthdays were awesome.

In her youth and early adult years, Pat was quite the vocalist and musician, singing and playing the piano in theater, choral groups and on local radio. She had a great sense of style, excelling in home decorating and fashion. (At the same time, she could maneuver and parallel park a Ford Mercury station wagon filled with kids like no other.) After her children were mostly grown, she worked at a popular children’s clothing shop called Trudy Gary in Westport, Connecticut and later served as assistant manager at Talbot’s in Westport and New Canaan.

Pat always loved animals and had many golden retrievers and cats through the years with Maggie and Millie among her favorites.

Some of her fondest memories as she got older were the happier days she had spent with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Pat is survived by daughter, Susan Arpin (David) of Leesville, South Carolina; daughter, Jane Rohman (John Bianco) of Blandford, Massachusetts; daughter Nancy Watkins (John) of Manhattan Beach, California; daughter Ann Palumbo (Ralph) of Tucson, Arizona; daughter Mary Rohman of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and son Tom Rohman (Anne) of Midlothian, Virginia. Surviving are also 14 grandchildren: Elizabeth and Kevin Bowsher, John Rohman Bianco Jr., Chelsea Rohman Jackson, Grace, Genevieve and Hanna Watkins, Peter and Michael Mattson, Jake Booth and Amanda Booth Brandon, Katherine Rohman Ollinger, Timothy and Michael Rohman; and many great-grandchildren.

Pat’s final resting place is in Redding Ridge Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut. Burial is private.
Contributions in her memory can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.