Patricia (Seymour) Alexander

Patricia Seymour Alexander died peacefully on September 29, 2023, from natural causes.

Born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1937, the daughter of Theodore Columbus and Helen Bures Seymour, Patricia was a talented and admired musician and educator. She lived a life immersed in singing, teaching music, and caring for her family. As a child, Patricia sang in church groups at the Second Presbyterian Church, a Czech-speaking congregation. Throughout her life she was proud of her Czech heritage. Patricia’s love of teaching was evident early on: known as the pied piper of her neighborhood, she organized classes in the summer, teaching younger children and putting on plays. Pretty, vivacious, and popular in high school, Patricia was eager to pursue a career as a performer; but her mother, also a talented musician, urged her to earn her college degree, which she did at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

As an undergraduate, Patricia continued to pursue performing, appearing both in college productions and with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. In her junior year, she married and began teaching private piano and voice lessons, soon with as many as 45 students. After moving to Rochester, NY, Patricia taught at the Hochstein School of Music and Roberts Wesleyan University. She enrolled at the Eastman School of Music, where she received a Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance, and she began a career as a public school music educator. Many of her students won awards and went on to successful performing careers, including Broadway, television, and film star Taye Diggs, and Derrick Smith, who sang at Carnegie Hall and later taught at Eastman. Patricia also continued performing with the Rochester Opera Theater, Eastman Opera Theater and as a professional soloist with oratorio and church choirs. She then joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music Community Education Division, and for 25 years up to the present, she taught voice and choir to students ranging from teenagers to septuagenarians.

In 1982, Patricia married George Alexander, who owned and operated his own heating and cooling company. In a life of many joys, including memorable stage performances and raising seven beloved Great Danes, Patricia took the greatest pride in her children and the love of music that she shared with them, saying, “It is amazing to me that my mother passed the music on to me and that I have been privileged to pass it on to all four of my children, three of whom work in music and one who is an educator.”

Patricia was pre-deceased by her husband George Alexander and her sister Barbara Swaney.

In addition to her sister Sally Cumpston, Patricia is survived by Geordie Alexander, Jr., her son with George; three other children: Renée Fleming, Rachelle Fleming Deberger, and Theodore Fleming; nine grandchildren: Amelia Ross, Sage Ross, Theodore Fleming, Jr., Jesse Fleming, Denise Fleming, Danaia Fleming, Davis Fleming, Lincoln Alexander, Adelaide Alexander; and many nieces and nephews.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Patricia’s memory to the Eastman Community Music School: www.rochester.edu/giving/alexander   

Friends and family are welcome to visit with the family at the R. D. Copeland, Inc. Funeral Home, 981 Brodhead Road, Moon Township on Wednesday from 11 - 1 pm, where a Funeral Service will be held at 1 pm. Committal prayers and interment will follow in the Coraopolis Cemetery. Those joining the family for the committal services will follow in procession to the cemetery.