Sen. Angela Alsobrooks’ mom taught her to lead with kindness

In the months after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2008, Patricia “Pat” Alsobrooks was determined to continue working and leading a normal life.

But chemotherapy took a toll on her. Her daughter urged her to tell her employer about the treatment and its side effects. She often had to take breaks during the six-block walk from the office to her parking space. Her daughter, the eventual Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, told her to request a closer spot.

But Pat said no. “I feel so blessed just to have a job that allows me to have the health insurance I need, and if God intends for me just to walk, I’m going to walk,” she recalled her mother saying.

That essentially summed up her mother’s character — never one to complain, even in the worst times, with an unshakeable faith that things would work out the way they should. She valued her independence and industriousness and modeled that behavior for her daughters.

It’s the foundation that gave Angela the confidence to eventually run for office and become Maryland’s first Black senator, she said.

“I couldn’t have run any one of these races without my mother,” she said. “She was there, rock-solid, from day one of every race, and she was there when the race was over to support me and help me to give advice and guidance.”

The senator will continue living by her mother’s example, she said, long after her death. Pat died Oct. 9 after suffering from lung disease and Alzheimer’s. She was 79.

Pat was born May 15, 1947, to Lelia Bright and Lonnie Thompson and grew up in Seneca, South Carolina. Her cousin, Tina Smith, moved there in the first grade. Smith, whose daughter Leslie Gray Streeter is a columnist for The Banner, remembers the teacher asking her on day one if she knew anyone in the room.

Smith can still picture the students staring back at her: “There was Pat, my cousin, of course, with a great big grin on her face.”

For a while, it was always the two of them and Tina’s younger sister, Ann. They played hide-and-seek and ran around together outside. Pat was, in some ways, the leader of the group, Smith said.

“She was very playful, but at the same time, very mature in a way that comes with being the only child and knowing that there are certain things that you are responsible for,” Smith said.

The girls became even closer — and relied on each other for support and comfort — after their grandfather was killed in an act of racial violence. The tragedy pushed the family to swiftly move to the Washington, D.C., area.

“We could talk to each other and we could be scared together and not sure what was going to happen,” Smith said.

As she grew older, Pat never lost her sense of responsibility and protectiveness over her family. But she gained new skills and interests, including dancing, fashion and beauty.

“Pat was the fly one, and we just kind of wanted to be as much like her as possible,” Smith said. Her cousin always kept up with the trends and experimented with new colors and styles.

After graduating from Fairmont Heights High School in Prince George’s County, Pat enrolled in cosmetology school. One day, while doing a woman’s hair at her house, her future husband walked in the door. James “Mack” McArthur Alsobrooks lived next door and came over to visit a friend. Instead, he found the love of his life.

They gave each other book recommendations and danced together for fun. They also shared a strong faith, and Pat felt strongly about building a family-oriented and spiritual life. They married in 1969 and soon had two daughters, Kimberly and Angela. The family later joined Ebenezer AME Church, where Pat and Mack worshipped for over four decades.

Pat taught her daughters to jump double Dutch and play ball. She joined the school PTA and carted the kids to Girl Scout meetings. She made sure the family ate dinner together every night.

“I could not imagine a more devoted mother and more devoted wife,” Angela Alsobrooks said.

She continued working, mostly as a receptionist, while raising her daughters. She attended floral arrangement school and in the 1980s launched The Creative Silkworm, a small floral business. She later returned to receptionist work at a few local medical centers and ended her career at the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.

Pat believed “there was dignity in all work, and that there was dignity in every worker,” Angela Alsobrooks said. She was the coworker who always offered rides to those without transportation, and a listening ear for anyone in search of advice.

One of Pat’s greatest joys came later in life, with the arrival of her granddaughter, Alexandra “Alex” Alsobrooks-Laney. To Alex, she was “Baba” — the warm, inviting grandmother who played dolls with her as a kid, brought her red Gatorade after track practice and showed up an hour early to school pickup.

Pat always showed interest in Alex’s favorite hobbies, many of which she also enjoyed, like painting and makeup. Even though Pat wasn’t very fond of dogs, she adored Alex’s pup, Nico, and soon became one of his favorite humans.

She was always looking to uplift other people, Alex said, and was never shy to give compliments. Even though she was generally more introverted than not, she always ended up making friends in public, her granddaughter said.

“That says a lot about her. … You don’t always have to be the loudest voice,” Alex said. “But she was someone where people always saw her kindness and her consideration, and someone that if you met her, you would come to love her.”

Memorial services will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 28 at Ebenezer AME Church.

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