Dion, member of pioneer McNamee family, dies at 77

Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 | 8:26 a.m.

Patience McNamee Dion, a member of one of Las Vegas' founding families and a former legal secretary for late Nevada U.S. Sen. Pat McCarran, has died. She was 77.

Dion died Nov. 27 died at a care facility in Bend, Ore., as a result of a stroke.

A memorial service will be Jan. 19 at Christ the King Catholic Church at a time to be determined. Burial will be in the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery.

"She was a great gal who never lost her spunk -- always full of vim and vigor," said Dion's niece Maryann Rivera. "Her five children were great kids, and they are her legacy."

Dion was the granddaughter of Frank McNamee Sr., an attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad who purchased land and water rights from the Stewart family in 1898, the basis for the Union Pacific land sale of 1905 that gave birth to Las Vegas.

She also was the niece of former Nevada Supreme Court Justice Frank McNamee.

She was the sister of former Nevada Assemblyman Joseph McNamee, now of Cambria, Calif., who in the early 1960s was the only Clark County legislator to introduce a bill to increase the gambling tax, and the late Fran McNamee Moore, Rivera's mother and one of the first recorded births in Las Vegas in 1916.

Born Patience McNamee on July 10, 1924, she was the fifth of seven children of longtime local attorney Leo McNamee and the former Frances McChristal. Patience was a 1941 graduate of Las Vegas High School and attended Immaculate Heart Women's College in Los Angeles.

After a brief return to Las Vegas, she moved to Washington, to serve as legal secretary for McCarran, who at the time was one of the nation's most powerful lawmakers, and the man for whom McCarran International Airport is named. Patience later worked for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

In 1950 she was selected to represent Nevada at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, a social event in which women were escorted by servicemen. There she met Coast Guard Ensign Norman Earl Dion. They married on Sept. 9, 1950.

Norman Dion died in 1993, and Patience moved from Los Alamitos to Bend in December 2000 to be close to a daughter.

In addition to her brother, Dion is survived by a son, Ned Dion of Cary, N.C.; four daughters, Melina Hasbrouck of Livermore, Calif., Susan Roden of Oakland, Ore., Maureen Schlerf of Bend and Sally Stapleton, of Atlanta; a sister-in-law, Anne Rittenhouse McNamee of Las Vegas; and eight grandchildren.

The family says donations can be made in Patience McNamee Dion's memory to the Hospice of Bend & LaPine, 1303 NW Galveston Drive, Bend, OR 97701.