POPULAR SALEM MAN PASSES AWAY SUDDENLY AT JUBILEE DINNER
Sudden Stroke Takes Member of Pioneer Family of This Section.
E. Cooke Patton, native of Salem member of an Oregon pioneer family and noted throughout the northwest as a stage and parlor magician, died very suddenly Friday night about 11 o'clock, after being stricken with a heart attack while performing his feats of legerdemain at a dinner given at the Hubbard Mineral Springs sanatorium. He lived only about an hour after the heart attack came, and was unconscious all of that time.
His wife was in the audience and remained at his side until death came. His brother, Hal D. Patton was summoned from Salem but did not arrive in time. Dr. Giese, of Hubbard, and persons connected with the sanatorium attended Mr. Patton after he was taken ill. The body was being brought to Salem Friday night, but no funeral arrangements could be announced. Mr. Patton was considered to be in fair health up to the moment of the attack. He had performed feats of magic at the Kiwanis club's Christmas tree entertainment at the Y.M.C.A., on Monday of this week. He had, however, been in poor health periodically for several years past.
Friends were impressed by the fact that his fatal illness came while he was engaged in his favorite work, that of entertaining. His lifelong desire, they said, was to make others happy. E. Cooke Patton was born in this city August 12, 1869, son of Thomas McFadden Patton and Frances (Cooke) Patton, both of whom crossed the plains to Oregon in 1851 in covered wagons drawn by oxen. Edwin N. Cooke, his grandfather, was the first state treasurer of Oregon and member of an early navigation firm on the Willamette river. Later he operated a mercantile establishment on the present site of the Ladd and Bush bank.
Mr. Patton's parents were married in Salem. His father clerked in stores here, studying law at the same time, and became one of this state's first attorneys. He served in early sessions of the Oregon legislature and his influence was largely responsible for the location of the state capital here. He laid the cornerstone of the statehouse, using a silver trowel which has been one of the treasured possessions of his son. Later the elder Patton was United States appraiser at Portland, and still later United States consul to Japan. In 1886 he became proprietor of the bookstore which his sons have operated since his death in 1892.
E. Cooke Patton attended the public schools here and at the age of 17 entered his father's store. For three years he also was manager of Reed's opera house and was active in bringing to Salem some of the outstanding theatrical attractions which graced the stage of that leading show house. In 1898 he married Miss Leah Orsella Guiss, of Woodburn, who passed away in 1927. They were parents of a daughter, Luella May, who is Mrs. Carl Charlton of this city. In August , 1928, Mr. Patton was married the second time, to Mrs. Sadie LaLonde of Portland. He was a member of the Society of International Brotherhood of Magicians and of the Woodmen of the World, United Artisans and Elks. He was a member of the Salem Kiwanis club.
