Beatrice Banning Ayer was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the daughter of Frederick Ayer, an industrialist who owned a woolen mill. She enjoyed a life of privilege and attended prestigious finishing schools. Beatrice Ayer and George Patton met for the first time as children. Their friendship resulted in marriage on May 26, 1910, in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts; a marriage which lasted over thirty years and produced three children, including a son, George S. Patton IV, who continued the West Point tradition of the Patton family and became a general.
Beatrice had many talents. She was bilingual in French and translated many French army manuals into English. She was an expert equestrian, a fine lecturer, and an able sailor with a sloop of her own. She was a fine writer compiling three books. She covered the country during WWII raising money during bond drives. After the tragic death of her husband in 1945, Mrs. Patton became a forceful and persuasive speaker advocating universal military training.
On September 30,1953 at Hamilton, Massachusetts, while horse riding she suffered a ruptured aortic aneurysm which took her life instantly causing her to fall from the animal. After a brief Episcopal service, she was cremated. Her wish to be buried with her husband was well known to her children and in compliance with her wish, they scattered a portion of her ashes over General Patton's grave several years after her death.
The remaining portion of her ashes was interred at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Essex County, Massachusetts.
Beatrice Banning Ayer was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the daughter of Frederick Ayer, an industrialist who owned a woolen mill. She enjoyed a life of privilege and attended prestigious finishing schools. Beatrice Ayer and George Patton met for the first time as children. Their friendship resulted in marriage on May 26, 1910, in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts; a marriage which lasted over thirty years and produced three children, including a son, George S. Patton IV, who continued the West Point tradition of the Patton family and became a general.
Beatrice had many talents. She was bilingual in French and translated many French army manuals into English. She was an expert equestrian, a fine lecturer, and an able sailor with a sloop of her own. She was a fine writer compiling three books. She covered the country during WWII raising money during bond drives. After the tragic death of her husband in 1945, Mrs. Patton became a forceful and persuasive speaker advocating universal military training.
On September 30,1953 at Hamilton, Massachusetts, while horse riding she suffered a ruptured aortic aneurysm which took her life instantly causing her to fall from the animal. After a brief Episcopal service, she was cremated. Her wish to be buried with her husband was well known to her children and in compliance with her wish, they scattered a portion of her ashes over General Patton's grave several years after her death.
The remaining portion of her ashes was interred at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Essex County, Massachusetts.
Gravesite Details
Cremated and a portion of her ashes scattered over the grave of her husband, General George Smith Patton, Jr.
Family Members
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