Patricia Tallman Palmore Westmoreland

Following graduation from Caverna High School, Patricia Palmore Westmoreland graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1968 with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing.  Soon after graduation she married Lyn Westmoreland, a Vanderbilt classmate and a new officer in the Air Force. They immediately moved to Big Spring, Texas where Lyn attended pilot training and Pat was a Registered Nurse in the regional Veterans Hospital. One year later Lyn was reassigned to Laredo, Texas, and Pat taught nursing at Laredo Junior College.  In 1973 they moved to San Antonio, Texas where both their children were born. In 1975 they moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where Pat spent a year with her two young children while Lyn was in Korea. Following that assignment, they moved to Valdosta, Georgia where Pat taught nursing at Valdosta State University while raising her family. In 1980 they moved again to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and moved again in 1983 to Phoenix, Arizona. From Arizona, the family moved to Okinawa, Japan for three years before returning to the United States in Las Vegas in 1990. Pat's children, Ashley and Marc, graduated from high school in Las Vegas, and attended colleges in Texas and Georgia. It was in Las Vegas in 1990 that Pat began her most recent career as a school nurse in the rapidly growing and sixth largest school system in the United States. It was here that she devoted 14 years to caring for children, both well and high needs, in up to three elementary schools at the same time. The pride and joy of her life are their two children, Ashley and Marc.  Ashley graduated from the University of Texas and Baylor University Law School. She is married to one of her law school classmates and resides in Fort Worth, Texas where she is an assistant district attorney. Her husband is an attorney in private practice.  Marc played varsity football and graduated from Georgia Tech and Rice University graduate school with his MBA.  He lives in Atlanta and works as a financial analyst.

Over the years Pat has cared for and raised her family while moving her family through 17 different communities including three years in Japan, traveled throughout places in the world that were unknown to her in Cave City, worked as a registered nurse in several hospitals, earned her master degree in counseling, taught nursing in two colleges, and practiced as a school nurse in three school systems.  Pat retired from the Clark County School District on 5 August 2004 and plans on traveling with her husband on his business trips for the next few months.