Former Democratic State Rep. Patricia “Pat” Stevens, 80, died on March 6 in Bangor after a brief illness.
Born in San Angelo, Texas, Stevens was educated in Bangor schools and was a graduate of the University of Maine in 1964, according to her obituary. Her parents Ronald and Hancel Mills stayed in Bangor after her father retired from Dow Air Force Base. Stevens taught in Bangor and Florida schools.
Stevens served 10 years in the Maine Legislature primarily in the 1980s before going to the University of Maine School of Law in Portland and becoming a lawyer. She was appointed assistant attorney general after joining the Maine State Bar Association, specializing in child protection cases until she retired in 2012, according to her obituary.
Among several bills Stevens sponsored during her time in the Legislature was one in 1989 that would remove the requirement that property owners eliminate buried oil tanks that held 500 gallons or less of heating oil.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection had decreed that all buried oil tanks be removed, which would have cost lower income families thousands of dollars. Though the bill ultimately did not pass, the state later provided assistance to property owners who struggled to afford the cost of tank removal.
She is survived by her husband Winfred “Win” Stevens, who she married in 1965, their three daughters Kathleen, Amy and Sara and their families and two brothers, among other family and friends. A celebration of life will be held 3-5 p.m. Saturday, March 18, at Brookings-Smith, 163 Center St. in Bangor.
BDN Reporter Emily Burnham contributed to this report.