Diane B. Patrick

Diane B. Patrick (née Bemus; born December 17, 1951) is an American lawyer specializing in labor and employment law. She served as the First Lady of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015 during the gubernatorial tenure of her husband, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. She was a partner in the labor and employment department of the Boston-based law firm, Ropes & Gray.

Biography Early life, career and education Patrick, the youngest of three children, was born Diane Bemus in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, to John Charles Bemus and Lilian (née Baker) Bemus. Her father was an electrician from a mixed race family of black and white ancestry in Vicksburg, Mississippi. John Charles Bemus, who enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 16, had to pass as completely white in order to work on a naval ship outside of a galley kitchen.

Diane Patrick's maternal grandfather was Bertram L. Baker, a New York politician who immigrated to the United States from Nevis in the then-British West Indies in 1915. In 1948, Baker was elected to the New York State Assembly, becoming the first black person elected to any office by voters in Brooklyn in history, as well as the second Nevisian-born person to serve in the New York State Assembly after Alexander Hamilton. Patrick has credited her "proud" West Indian family for emphasizing education and professional success.

She was raised in Bedford–Stuyvesant, where she lived in a brownstone with her extended family, including her parents, her brother and sister, grandparents, an aunt, cousins, and two dogs. Her family later moved to Hollis, Queens, when she was still young. She worked as an elementary school teacher in the City School District of the City of New York for five years, until her job was eliminated during the city's fiscal crisis in the 1970s. The couple had two daughters, Sarah and Katherine.

She spoke publicly of her battle and recovery from depression a year later. Some observers felt that the first lady would have to leave her law career, but Patrick expanded her role at the firm during this time. Deval Patrick initially declined to run for President of the United States in 2020 due to his wife's cancer diagnosis. Deval Patrick withdrew from the race after placing tenth in the New Hampshire primary.

Diane Patrick has served as a trustee for several organizations, including ArtsBoston, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge College, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She has also been a member of the boards of directors for the Epiphany School in Dorchester, Jane Doe, Inc., Massachusetts General Hospital, Mass General Brigham, the Posse Foundation, and United Way of Massachusetts Bay.