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Gold Hill judge worked despite pain Durante died last week of rare form of cancer GOLD HILL -- Patricia Durante, the city's municipal court judge, has died. She was 51. Durante died Thursday of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a rare, soft tissue cancer that started in her arm and spread to her lungs and heart. She was diagnosed last May. Durante had continued working, despite her terminal illness. She held court last month and remained legal assistant for Medford attorney Mike Jewett. "Every time I'd walk in her hospital room she'd be on the telephone saying, `Did you do this?' `Did you do that?' `This guy's in jail and he needs to be bailed out,"' said Jack Durante, her husband of 31 years. "I don't know how she kept working with all that pain." Gold Hill residents elected Durante as municipal court judge in 1996. In 1997, she was given a scholarship to attend the American Bar Association-sponsored National Judicial College, in Reno, Nev. Her class included a Supreme Court justice from North Carolina. "Patricia was chosen as keynote speaker from her class, the first nonattorney to go through the school that was given that honor," Jack Durante said. "She was also the first nonattorney judge in the school's history ever asked to come back as a facilitator. She didn't go back because she got sick." It will be impossible to fill the shoes of the 4-foot-11, 100-pound Gold Hill judge, her friends and co-workers say. "She did a great job as judge," said city council member Donna Silva. "She got involved in Gold Hill politics and straightened out the judge's position." Her husband added, "She had a real positive influence in the community because of her honesty and her integrity. She tried to bring peace to Gold Hill." Durante studied for two years at the University of Nevada to become certified as a bilingual legal assistant and served as administrative coordinator for Los Abigados, a group of seven attorneys who provided indigent defense for Spanish-speaking people. Patricia Durante had been a paralegal for 20 years, never fulfilling her dream of law school because she was so devoted as a wife, mother and grandmother, her family said. "We worked for the same law firm, went through paralegal legal school together and had plans to go to law school," said Phyllis Raudman, her friend for the past 15 years and a Redding, Calif., resident. "She told me not to wait for her but when I went to law school, she was my biggest supporter. I just took the bar exam. We were looking forward to me passing and her swearing me in." Patricia Durante is survived by two daughters, Jacqueline Saites, Central Point and Michelle Durante, Medford; and four grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a son, Richard Allen Durante, in 1989. "My kids called her `my little grandma,"' said Jacqueline Saites, who owns Story Time Child Care in Central Point. "It didn't matter how much stuff she had to do," Saites said. "If somebody had a birthday, she would get up at crack of dawn and blow up balloons to decorate the office." Jack Durante, who owns Buy Rite Mobile Homes in Phoenix, said that everyone who knew the Gold Hill judge loved her. "She was so caring and so sweet. Everybody else's problems and worries were her first concern. Her needs and concerns were always second." "Two weeks ago, as she's dying in the hospital, she finds out a guy who works for me is ill. She called him every day to make sure he was all right. That was Patty in a nutshell." A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Central Point Assembly of God. Pastors Jeff Anderson and James Williams will officiate. The family has established a scholarship for women who want to study law. Memorial contributions can be sent to Patricia A. Durante Legal Scholarship Fund, in care of Key Bank, 510 E. Pine, Central Point, OR 97502. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA