Patricia Ann Dailey was born on January 11, 1935 in New Orleans to Abigail Heath and John William "Pete" Dailey. 

Born to Irish immigrants in Missouri, Pete had a stellar career in journalism.  At 16 he left home with his best friend, Harvey Wertz.  They built a raft and used it to float down the Mississippi river, duplicating Huck Finn’s legendary journey.  The stories they wrote about their journey were published back in St Louis and syndicated widely.  Not long after this, he and Harvey took a tramp steamer to Germany in the days leading up to WWI, their stated intention was to interview the Kaiser.  By the time Pete proposed to Abigail, he was the editor-in-chief of the New Orleans Times-Picayune—at 33 he was the youngest editor-in-chief in the history of that paper. 

Abigail Heath was a sought-after debutante from a storied New Orleans family which could trace its roots back to the revolutionary war.  Her grandfather had been state Attorney General, and her father "Poppy" a respected attorney.  Her mother, known as “Bummy” to her family, was a painter, a classical pianist, and a Shakespeare scholar. 

         Patty’s brother Peter Heath Daily, born in 1930, would go on to found a very successful advertising agency, Dailey and Associates, and to work on the presidential campaigns of several Republican presidents, including those of Nixon, Ford and Reagan.  Peter served as American Ambassador it Ireland in the early 1980s.  He and his wife, Jackie, have five children, Michael Ann, Sydney, Peter, Elizabeth and Patricia.  The have five grandchildren and live in Pasadena, California.

In 1941 Pete took a job as publicist at a Hollywood studio.  The family moved to Toluca Lake, as it happens just around the corner from the Roy O Disney family.  Their son, Roy Edward, was the same age as Patty’s brother Peter, and so they met and became friends early.

Patty attended St. Charles School, the parochial school in the neighborhood, where she claims the future Cardinal Roger Mahoney would dip her pigtails into the inkwells as a way of flirting with her.  She would later graduate from Corvallis High School and attend one year of college at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

         While Patty was in college, her father took at job as an editor at Look Magazine, and moved the family to New York.  Disenchanted with college, she moved to New York to join her parents in 1953 and worked for a year at NBC. 

         In 1954, at the urging of her future mother-in-law, Edna Disney, Patty went to the airport to greet her old friend Roy, who was returning from Utah where he’d been working on a film for the Walt Disney Company.  They spent the next few days renewing their old acquaintance.  When Roy left, this time driving his prized new MG back to location, he realized that this was the girl he was meant to marry.  Family legend has it that he made three U-turns on the way back to Utah, but each time, lost his nerve.  But when he arrived in Utah he sent a telegram to Patty, saying simply, “MARRY ME STOP.” 

         In response Patty promptly replied: “HELL YES STOP.”  After announcing their engagement at the opening night party for Disneyland , they married on September 17, 1955.

      Roy Patrick Disney was born April 16, 1957 after Roy and Patty’s year-long honeymoon in Europe.  He has three children by a previous marriage, Roy Michael, Caitlin and Kimberly Disney.  Married to Sheri Disney in1999, he has a stepdaughter, Charlee Corra and a son, Aidan.  They live in Toluca Lake in the same house in which Roy Edward lived when he met Patty.

Susan Margaret Disney was born May 12, 1958.  She has three children by a previous marriage, Maxwell, Megan and Sarah Loughman.  She has been married to Scott Lord since 1999 and together they have twins, Christopher and Timothy Edward (Ted). 

         Abigail Edna Disney was born January 24, 1960. She married Pierre Hauser in 1988.  They live in New York with their four children, Charlotte, Olivia, Henry and Eamon.

Timothy John Disney was born June 13, 1961.  He has two children by a previous marriage, Ciaran and Francis.  He is married to Neda Disney since 2010, and their daughter Lorelei Bloom was born in 2011.

         Patty was a vibrant, intelligent, witty, well-read and independent soul who devoted her entire life to supporting her husband Roy in everything that he did.  She sailed with him and when she stopped crewing on the races she met him on every dock he sailed to.  

         She was an excellent cook, and could conjure a turkey gravy that none of her children has yet been able to equal.  She was a voracious reader and had usually finished four newspapers cover-to-cover before anyone else in the house had even risen for the day.

Together with Roy, she traveled the world.  Together with their beloved friend and confidant Stanley Gold they built an empire and twice forced leadership changes at the Walt Disney company that shareholders should still be thanking them for today.  But while she relished a good fight, Patty was happiest when at Coolmain Castle in Ireland, her refuge from the world.  

In 2006 Patty began to slide into the clutches of Alzheimer's Disease.  For all the hardships of that long slog into dementia, she maintained a remarkable sense of humor.  Even in the last days of her life, when she could barely walk or speak, she still could make faces and funny gestures that cracked everyone up.   That sense of humor was no small miracle, and it will serve as an inspiration, along with her strength of character, her fierce loyalty, her razor sharp intelligence and her very, very good legs, to all who loved her.