Pat Woolley was teacher, leader of Beach Cities art community
by Claire Ery Patricia Marie (Pat) Woolley passed away peacefully on January 5, 2024, at her home in Manhattan Beach where she lived and was active in the community for six decades. Born Patricia Marie Peu Duvallon on February 12, 1933, in Cannes, France, Pat was raised on the French Riviera and, for a short time, on a farm near Toulouse. The only child of a French father and an English mother, she attended a bilingual primary school in Cannes. When France was occupied during WWII, Pat came to the U.S. on one of the last ships to leave for America with her mother, English maternal grandparents, and one suitcase. Her family thought this would only be a temporary home. However, it became home base, though she made many trips back to Europe over the course of her life. A graduate of Canoga Park High School, Pat loved telling how she and a friend would sometimes ride their horses to school from Encino. After a year of finishing school in Switzerland, Pat studied French at the Sorbonne and art at the Académie Julian in Paris. She then went on to Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles where she excelled in illustration. Pat met her first husband, John Woolley, when both were young…
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