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BIOGRAPHY:  Vernette Coles Patterson, CPT

Vernette Coles Patterson was born August 2, 1925, in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. She attended Elementary and High Schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She also attended Mercy Hospital and School for Nurses in Philadelphia from 1943 to 1945. She later attended Millard Fillmore College in Buffalo.

Ms. Patterson worked for almost thirty years as a Cardiopulmonary Technologist in the Angiology Department of Buffalo General Hospital, Diagnostic Cardiovascular Laboratory. From 1972 to 1987, she was a Research Technician at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo General Hospital.

She is a member of the National Society of Cardiopulmonary Technologists, Inc. Her civic and service organization affiliations include: East Side Community Organization, Inc., ESCO (Board of Directors); Planned Parenthood of Buffalo, Inc. (Board of Directors); Westminster Community House, Inc. (Board of Directors); Buffalo Chapter of The Links, Incorporated (forty-two years); African Cultural Center; Buffalo Negro Scholarship Foundation; Buffalo Federation of Women's Clubs; Women in Community Service (WICS); Research Institute on Alcoholism (Committee on Human Subjects); Black Dance Workshop, Inc. (Board of Directors); Buffalo General Hospital Institutional Review (Board Member); NCCJ National Conference for Community Justice (Board Member); Volunteer Women for Human Rights and Dignity (WHRD); Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. (Member); NAACP (Life Member); Deaconess Center (Volunteer); National Society of Cardiopulmonary Technologists, Inc. (Member).

Mrs. Patterson is a member of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church where she has been active for over thirty years. Throughout her membership she as served in many of the church's organizations and currently participates as a member of several choirs.

She was married in 1946 to the late James Patterson. They have two children, Gregory James and Kevin LeRoy.