Patricia Skipper was born at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital, Oceanside, California. As a Marine Corps brat, her family moved frequently across the United States. In 1961, her father retired in South Carolina after 21 years in the military. An extremely turbulent time in the South, it was Patricia’s first encounter with the Southern Jim Crow laws. During this period, Patricia experienced something peculiar, segregation. In Charleston segregation was everywhere; bathrooms, schools, water fountains, buses, waiting rooms, beaches and much more. A clear divide regarding race had a major influence on Patricia. Her father was a World War 11 and Korean War veteran. On Marine Corps bases, African Americans shopped at the Post Exchange, ate in the same Enlisted and Officer’s clubs plus swam in the same pools as Patricia. Her parents had Black friends in the military that continued until they passed away. Her mother Mary was from New York City and the treatment of her fellow man because of their skin color appalled her. Mary’s parents, Patricia’s grandparents emigrated from Sicily in 1914 to New York and never left the city. As Italians, the Martello family faced their own discrimination after arriving at Ellis Island which her mother witnessed daily.

As a child, her Mom took her to Sears and Roebuck, Inc. in downtown Charleston. For the first time, Patricia saw a “Colored Only” sign above the bathrooms and water fountains. It had a profound effect on Patricia. Even walking in downtown Charleston meant that the African American would step off the sidewalk to let the White person pass. Patricia pitied the treatment of Black people that she witnessed in the 1960’s.

Patricia attended Divine Redeemer Catholic grammar school and Bishop England High School in downtown Charleston on Calhoun Street. Rednecks called Catholics “fish eaters.” Every week, Rednecks placed rotten fish in the hands of the Mother Mary statue in front of the school. Patricia remembers the nuns having them put the decaying fish in the trash and washing Mary’s hands until they were spotless. Every basketball and football game had the opposing teams screaming, “Beat the damn fish eaters.”

Patricia graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BS in Journalism and the University of Southern Mississippi with a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism. Additionally, she studied abroad at the University of Tampere in Finland and the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico.

Patricia’s writing career kicked off at the Charleston Evening Post, covering Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Patricia wrote for the Post across Europe with stories from Tallinn, Estonia, Helsinki, Finland, Copenhagen, Denmark and more.

During college, Patricia joined WNOK-TV, Columbia, SC, and began her endeavors in broadcasting. Her broadcasting career saw her switching between WDCA-TV, Washington DC, and KBHK-TV San Francisco. While on the West Coast, she helped a fledgling new movement called “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” MADD. She got their first television public service announcements on the air in San Francisco. Afterward, she contacted stations across the country asking them to run the PSAs. Eventually, the movement took off. Since 1980, MADD has reduced drunk driving deaths by 50%, saved 450,000 lives and compassionately helped more than 900,000 victims.

Patricia has won numerous Addy Awards for her talents in commercial writing. She is a resolute supporter of American Women in Radio and Television.

And now, Patricia invites her readers on an exhilarating journey through the eyes of Vanessa in her book Deceptive Calm.

A stunning light-skinned beauty, Vanessa, raised in a Southern Black orphanage, assumes the identity of a dead white baby. Her charmed life abruptly ends after the birth of her first child when his diagnosis is Sickle Cell disease. Discovering that the woman he married is black, as is his toddler son, Vanessa’s ruthless husband plots their murders.