Patrice "Patti" Layou
Apr 16, 1956 -
Oct 10, 2021
Patti Layou passed from this earth to a better place on Oct. 10, 2021, in Anchorage, Alaska. She was 65 years old. Born in Moose Lake, Minn., to Ted Palach and Agnes Jungers Palach, Patti first came to Alaska as an infant in 1956. Her first few years were spent in the mining camp in Platinum, where her father worked for the Goodnews Bay Mining Company. After five years in Moose Lake, the family returned to Alaska in 1965 and settled in Anchorage. Patti graduated from West Anchorage High School in 1974. She attended University of Alaska Anchorage and received an associate degree.
Patti worked for the Ward family at the Pacific Auction during her high school and college years. She was employed with Anchorage School District from 1991 to 2017, working at Chinook and Nunaka Valley Elementary Schools as an administrative assistant and later as an executive secretary at the ASD Education Center for the public affairs and communications departments. She was an active member in the International Associates of Administrative Professionals until she retired in 2017.
Patti married Randy Ribble, her life's best love, in 2006 and lived with him and their four-legged family in Anchorage the reminder of her life.
As an active community volunteer, Patti supported the Alaska Run for Women, Special Olympics of Alaska and Ushering in the Arts at the Alaska Center for Performing Arts. She enjoyed watching NASCAR, baseball and hockey with her husband, reading trashy novels, watching John Wayne movies, growing berries, and making jams and jellies to give to others and dip netting salmon. She spent time researching her father's military history in the Aleutian Islands and elsewhere in World War II, being the fun aunt to her nieces Ashley and Krista and being a special friend to her neighbor's daughter Elen.
Besides being a loving mother, wife and sister, Patti had a huge extended family and many friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ted and Agnes Palach; and sister, Bonnie Palach. She is survived by her husband, Randy Ribble; son, Thomas Layou; sisters, Jan (Arnie) Westfall and Terri (Chuck) Little of Durango, Colo.; brother, Brad (Jann) Palach of Wasilla; nieces, Krista and Ashley of Durango, Laurel, Alicia and Jenn Jenn; and her other big sister, Donna Redding.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made in Patti's memory to the following organizations: Special Olympics of Alaska, Ushering in the Arts/Alaska Center for the Performing Arts and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Anchorage. Patti's cremains will be scattered in a place she loved and that has a special meaning to her and her family. A memorial service with celebration of life will be held on Nov. 9, 2021, at St. Mark Lutheran Church, 3230 Lake Otis Parkway in Anchorage, at 4 p.m.
As a friend said, "Patti was a shining light whose big smile and unique laughter captured your heart and spirit from the moment you met her." She will be missed.
