Nelson Wayne Pate

NELSON WAYNE PATE

This will be the most unusual obit you will ever see in the paper. I have decided that instead of flowers, I would like donations in my memory to be made to St. Jude Hospital. I would like you to think about how flowers die in 2 or 3 days, and that the money is better spent at St. Judes, which pays for everything. The patients are not charged. Thank you, Wayne.

Nelson Wayne Pate, 76, of Lynn Haven, passed away July 8, 2020, at his home. He was born in Sylacauga, AL, and was a 1962 graduate of Fayetteville High School. During his childhood and teen years he traveled with his father, who was in the Army, and joined the Air Force when it was created. Wayne got to live in Japan, England and Tripoli, Libya before his father's death in 1960. After graduation, he moved to Panama City where he worked at the Piggly Wiggly in Millville for a few years. In 1967 he got a job at St. Joe Paper Company, remaining there until its closure in 2002. In 2003, he started at Smurfit-Stone, retiring in 2010. Wayne loved grocery shopping, and was a die hard Alabama Fan who loved spending time with his grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Nelson C. and Mary Pate; brothers, Buddy Leach and Thomas J. Pate; and a son, Timothy Wayne Pate.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Betty Drennan Pate; his children, Debbie Pate Curtis (Jonathan), Jeremy Wayne Pate (Ashley), and T. J. Pate (Stephanie); and his beloved grandchildren, Christopher Touchton, Alec Touchton, Natalie Collins, Bentley Collins, Addison Pate, Ella Pate, Kali Pate and Kadence Pate.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 pm Saturday, July 11, 2020, at the Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Bill Carpenter officiating. Interment will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery. Asked to serve as pallbearers are T. J. Pate, Jeremy Pate, Skip Koski, Christopher Touchton, Alec Touchton and Tony Nicholson. The family will receive friends at the Chapel Saturday from 12:30 pm until service time at 2:00 pm. Remember, no flowers please. Make donations in Wayne's name to St. Judes Children's Hospital. "Go Bama! Oooh Me!"

Kent-Forest Lawn, 2403 Harrison Avenue, 763-4694
www.kentforestlawn.com
 

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