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"Mary Patricia Trefzger, daughter of Francis F. (Franz) and Marie Rose Niland, was born on October 23, 1926 in Cincinnati. Mary Patricia (later called Patricia, Pat, Tricia, Mary Pat or Patty) spent five of her childhood years (1928-1933) in Europe. Franz was a talented lyric tenor singing and studying opera abroad. During those years, the family lived for a time in Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany.
Patricia learned to speak Italian in Milan as she was learning to speak English at home. Her formal education began at a French grammar school in Liege, Belgium, where she learned to speak French.
In 1933, the depth of the depression brought the Trefzgers back to Cincinnati. There, Patricia’s only sibling, Susan Ann, was born. Franz (Fran) sang professionally and continued his graduate studies in music and romance languages to equip him for teaching on the college level.
Educated through grade school and high school by the nuns at St. Ursula Academy, Patricia was gold medalist of her graduating class, as she was the top scholar in her graduating class at the University of Cincinnati four years later.
Patricia’s first full-time job was as editor of Writer’s Digest, a trade magazine for writers. During her five years at Writer’s Digest she met and in 1952 married William A. Overbeck, a Cincinnatian then serving as a Captain in the Marine Corps. The Overbecks had three children in the years 1954 to 1956: William Walter, now of Dallas; Ann Marie of Atlanta; and Lynn Frances Hughes of Cincinnati. Patricia’s husband Bill died of a heart attack in 1975.
After her children were in grade school, Patricia’s scholastic honors, including her Phi Beta Kappa key, led her to Edgecliff College, Cincinnati, where she taught English for 20 years. In 1964, she began part-time graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati, leading to a Ph.D. in English in 1969. After Edgewood College closed, Patricia retired from teaching and became involved in a variety of community activities.
One of Patricia’s abiding interests was Berger Hill. Growing up, she spent time there during the summers, welcomed by her two great Aunts, Anna Berger and Teresa Berger Sheblessy. Twenty-eight acres and two Victorian ladies to learn from!
In later years, Patricia spent part of the summers doing research on Chaucer at the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University. She lived for one magical summer in Great Britain on a fellowship from the English-Speaking Union. One week she spent in Paris!
On this very hot day in June, 2008, Bill, Ann, and Lynn are reasonably healthy and reasonably solvent with children of their own, dogs and family memories --- decades of them --- a moving photo album."*
* by Mary Patricia Trefzger Overbeck
Patricia married William Overbeck on July 27,1952. The wedding was at Annunciation Church in Clifton and the reception was on Berger Hill.
Her husband Bill died in April 1975.
In early November 2010 Patricia was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. When she could no longer stay at home alone she went to Scarlet Oaks in Clifton. Patricia died peacefully on December 10,2010.
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