PAT CHAMBERS
Patricia Murray Chambers was the older daughter of Alexander (“Sandy”) Howison Murray, Jr., and Isadeen Adela Raffetto Murray.
Born in the Mother Lode capital, Placerville, CA, to a Californio family, Pat was descended on her father’s side from Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766-1878) of San Gabriel Mission. On her mother’s side, great-grandfather Domenico Raffetto came to Placerville in the 1850s.
Pat received a BA in History from the University of California at Berkeley in 1958. She came East and became a researcher for the CIA briefly before marrying the son of Whittaker Chambers in 1961 in Washington, DC. She moved to Tuckahoe Farm in Middletown, MD, 1972, where she raised three children. Divorced 1987, she moved to Frederick.
Pat worked at The Frederick News Post in Advertising, then managed Sound Source. She also published Frederick County Weather Almanac. She won awards for both advertising and almanac. She served as a tour guide at Rose Hill Manor until May 2007.
During her 35 years in Frederick County, Pat gave of herself to the community in jobs and served on numerous boards including the Frederick Arts Council, the Maryland Regional Ballet, St. John’s Catholic Prep (“Prospect Hall”), the St. John’s Graveyard Committee, and the Frederick Art Club (1st VP 2005-6, 2nd VP 2006-7). She was an avid member of Frederick’s League of Women Voters and Torch Club.
She died in Frederick, MD, from brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme), after partially successful surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.