State of Mississippi Judiciary

Retired Chancellor Donald Patterson died July 10

July 11, 2018

Retired Chancellor Donald B. Patterson of Brookhaven died July 10. He was 87.

A funeral service will be held Friday, July 13, at 3 p.m. at Ole Towne Church, 220 South Jackson Street in Brookhaven. Visitation will be from 1 to 3 p.m. before the funeral. Interment will be at Monticello City Cemetery.

Judge Patterson served as chancellor of the 15th Chancery District of Copiah and Lincoln counties from January 1991 through December 1998.

Chancellor Ed Patten Jr., who followed Judge Patterson on the bench, said he aspired to follow the example Judge Patterson set. “During the eight years he was on the bench and thereafter as one I could call and seek counsel, I learned more about being a lawyer and a chancellor than law school and law practice could ever have offered. He was a legal scholar, a mentor and a friend.”

Judge Patterson was born Oct. 14, 1930, in Monticello, Mississippi. He earned a law degree from the University of Mississippi, where he served as business manager of the Mississippi Law Journal. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1958. He was in private law practice in Brookhaven from 1958 until he took the bench in January 1991.

####