Patricia Anne Runyan of Presidio passed away Saturday, June 27, 2026, just shy of 75.
Trisha was born in Louisiana, August 12, 1951, the first of five children to Titus and Grace D. Runyan. As the child of a talented, itinerant tradesman, she grew up in many of the small towns of Texas that border the Rio Grande or occupy the flat scrublands of West Texas, including San Angelo, Pecos, Presidio, Panther Junction, and Del Rio.
She graduated from eighth grade at San Vicente School in Big Bend National Park in 1964. There were no high schools in Big Bend at that time, so the family moved to Del Rio, Texas, where Trisha could continue her education. She graduated from Del Rio High School and married a classmate, Ray Smith. They had two children, Shannon and Nathan.
In May 1973, Trisha survived the flood at Neal’s in Concan near Uvalde by sharing a skinny cottonwood tree for eight hours with two others until they were rescued. There were other versions of this story, no less exciting than this one, but this is the one most often repeated.
After being a stay-at-home mother for several years, she earned a college degree from St. Edward’s University and worked in various capacities as a lobbyist and director at nonprofits and a grant writer at government agencies.
She had a creative mind which she employed in writing and storytelling. Like her father, she could spin a good yarn, facts be damned. Under Trisha’s influence, the mundane could turn into the extraordinary. She was a lifelong writer and a collection of her short stories were published in a 2024 anthology, Central Texas Writer’s Society and Beyond.
She returned to Presidio at the end of her life, living in the house that her great-grandfather built in 1918. A proud fourth-generation West Texan, Trisha carried her mother’s legacy by stewarding the family home. The deep roots of her beloved adobe, which she nicknamed la Casa de Mis Sueños, provided her the sense of safety and history that she valued.
She is survived by her sweetheart, Kenneth Sims of Shafter, who she shared her final years with. Trisha is also survived by: her daughter, Shannon Richardson (Willie), and son, Nathan Smith; along with her grandchildren, Anna Claire Beasley (Danny Blake), Chloe Mae Beasley (Andrew Guzman), Sara Beth Beasley and J.W. Beasley. Her sisters, Rosanne Singer, Kate Runyan, Beth Hamm, and brother, Ty Runyan, (and their children and spouses) will miss her regular updates. In the last days of her life, she was happy to get the news of the birth of her great-grandson, Jackson Guzman, who entered into the world just before she left it.
