Patricia Ann Stepken, age 75 passed peacefully on the morning of September 30, 2020.  She was born to Wayne and Roberta Sturges on January 27, 1945, in Poteet, Texas. She graduated from Jourdanton High School.  She married Terry Stepken and embraced her stepdaughter, Deanna, and had two children Shelby and Jennifer in Denton, Texas.  Her passion was for musical theater and she loved doing live melodramas at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre in Dallas, her second home.  She moved to Los Angeles where she studied and worked in television and theater as a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors' Equity Association.  After the Northridge Earthquake in L.A., she returned to Denton, Texas with her life partner, Patricia A. Stukes, and became a federal caseworker with FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security.  She also returned to her alma mater, Texas Woman's University where she originally completed her B.A., in Recreational Therapy to complete a Master's in Theater focused on signing for the hearing impaired.  She loved to sing, her children, her garden, reading, cookbooks, her friends, politics, her freedom, laughing, God, and her dogs, Sugar, Queso, WhoDat, and WhoDis.

She was sunlight and joyous in her life and is survived by her partner of 29 years, Dr. Patricia A. Stukes, her son Shelby Stepken, her daughter, Jennifer Parker, her son-in-law, Jackie Parker, her grandchildren Maygen Stepken, Dawson Parker, and Ashlyn Parker, and her great-grandchildren, Jake, Allison, Cameron, and Morgan.

She was loved deeply and will forever be missed.  Rest in Peace. Her Memorial will be on Saturday, October 3 ^rd at 10:00 am at the Mulkey-Bowles-Montgomery Funeral Home on 705 N. Locust Street, Denton, Texas 76201.