CORTEZ, Colo. — Eleanor Patricia Huey “Pat” Murrell passed away in Cortez, Colo., on July 31 after a two-year battle with kidney cancer. She was 71 years old.

Pat was born in Casper, Wyo., July 28, 1939, to Rex R. and June Beck Huey. With the exception of one year in Rye, N.Y., when she was 5, she lived in Casper through high school, graduating from Natrona County High School in 1957. She attended Phillips University in Enid, Okla., for two years before her marriage in 1959 to Donald W. Murrell, whom she had met at church youth group. She worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. in Oklahoma City while her husband was a student at the University of Oklahoma.

After his graduation in 1963, they moved to Vicksburg, where he was employed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She was a full-time homemaker and mother to their four children until 1980, when she went to work in the Research Library of the Waterways Experiment Station, Army Corps of Engineers, retiring in 2000.

After living in Vicksburg for 43 years, she and her husband decided to return to the Rocky Mountain West to live, selecting southwestern Colorado near Mesa Verde National Park and the La Plata mountains. They moved into their log home in March of 2006.

She truly loved the Lord, her husband, her family and her church. She had been a lifelong member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) until moving to Colorado, where she and Don joined the Cortez United Methodist Church. She was active in volunteer and church work. She also loved traveling. Prior to her full-time employment in 1980, she and the children were often able to accompany her husband on his summer work projects, spending much of many summers in Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Alberta, Canada.

She was preceded in death by her parents and one niece, Melinda Huey.

She is survived by her husband of 50 years; sons, Steve and wife Tina of Gonzales, La., Stan and wife Julie of Alabaster, Ala., and Scott and wife Angie of Baton Rouge; daughter, Shelley of Beaumont, Calif.; her brother, Jim and wife Alice of Gainesville, Ga.; her sister, Kay Wilson of Norman, Okla.; five grandchildren; four nieces; and four nephews.

Cremation has occurred. There will be a memorial service at the First Christian Church, Vicksburg, on Aug. 21, 2010, at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the First Christian Church, Vicksburg, or to the American Cancer Society.