Mary Elizabeth ‘Maribeth’ Ford Pate dies at 93

Aug 1, 2022

OPA | THE OKLAHOMA PUBLISHER 

Mary Elizabeth (Maribeth) Ford Pate, who owned The Madill (Oklahoma) Record along with her husband, Jim, for more than 60 years, died June 7, 2022. She was 93.

Pate was born in Sentinel, Oklahoma, on April 22, 1929. She spent her early childhood years in western Oklahoma before her parents relocated the family of seven to Norman in 1940.

She received a business degree from The University of Oklahoma in 1951. Pate worked with student publications, including The OU Daily at the University of Oklahoma, where she met her husband, Jim. They married on June 10, 1954.

Jointly, Jim and Maribeth oversaw publication of The Madill Record, a Pate family owned newspaper from 1929 until 1994. Maribeth published a column, Maribeth’s Meanderings, for many years.

She is survived by three children: Martha Jean (Marti) Gallardo and Laura Jane (Lauri) Kimball, both of Dallas, and William Clay (Bill) Pate of Houston; nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.