Patton Legacy
Project Service and Sacrifice (PS&S) was inspired by Joanne Holbrook Patton (1931–2023), wife of Major General George S. Patton IV and daughter-in-law of General George S. Patton Jr. and Beatrice Ayer Patton.
Born into five generations of military tradition, Joanne understood service as both an inheritance and a responsibility. She was a natural-born leader whose family included generations of officers, among them the Army’s first and last Chiefs of Cavalry and her father, Brigadier General Willard A. Holbrook Jr., whose 11th Armored Division accepted the surrender of Linz, Austria, in 1945.
After more than forty moves as an Army wife, Joanne and her husband retired in 1980 to the Patton Homestead, the family home in Hamilton, Massachusetts. There, she continued to champion Military Service veterans and their families, people with special needs, education and the arts, conservation and sustainable agriculture, while devoting herself to preserving, organizing, and sharing the Patton family archives with the public.
Many of those who founded PS&S knew Joanne personally as both a guiding light and a friend. Her commitment to the values of the Patton Legacy—courage, duty before self, sacrifice, and service—never wavered. Those values continue to guide PS&S's work today, bringing generations together to honor, preserve, and share the stories of service and sacrifice.