[1] His turbulent tenure as governor was roiled by numerous civil rights protests and a long-running extramarital affair with Tina Sawyer, a mother-of-two who would eventually become his third wife.
[5] Patterson came to wider attention in the mid-1950s when he and his father Albert (who was murdered in 1954) fought against criminal organizations who controlled the town of Phenix City, Alabama.
In 2003, Patterson was the presiding judge over former Chief Justice Roy Moore's appeal against his removal from the Alabama Supreme Court.
Albert Patterson was fatally shot in Phenix City by an unknown assailant on June 18, 1954, less than two weeks after winning the Democratic nomination.
Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ordered an end to racial segregation in public schools, Patterson coordinated action in half a dozen Southern states against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
[15] In 1958, Patterson ran for governor of Alabama on a platform of strong law enforcement and segregation, citing his background in Phenix City and his crime-fighting efforts as attorney general.
[19] During Patterson's tenure, the Alabama legislature increased funding for highways, inland waterways, old age pensions,[20] schools, and mental health facilities.
[21] During his term as governor, Patterson embarked on a long-running extramarital affair with Tina Sawyer, a woman who would eventually become his third wife.
[15] In 1959, Patterson was approached by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to allow Alabama Air National Guardsmen to help train pilots preparing for an invasion of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
In 1966 Patterson ran a second time for governor but was defeated by Wallace's wife, Lurleen, who was widely understood to be a surrogate candidate for her husband.
[26] In 1970, Patterson unsuccessfully contested the Democratic nomination for the post of Alabama Chief Justice, losing to future U.S.
In 1984, Governor George Wallace appointed Patterson to the intermediate Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, on which he was re-elected[29] until his retirement from it in 1997.
[30][31] In 2003, Patterson was appointed chief justice of a "Special Supreme Court" that tried the case of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who appealed his removal from office after he had refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse despite orders from a federal court judge to do so.
[5]An authorized biography of Patterson entitled Nobody but the People, written by historian Warren Trest, was published in 2008 by New South Books.
Although Mary Jo was deeply affected by the affair, news of which damaged Patterson's reputation, she stayed in the marriage and eventually became accustomed to his dalliance.
[41] After 28 years of marriage and citing infidelity, Mary Jo Patterson filed for divorce; it was finalized on June 10, 1975.