A reporter covering their story dubbed them "Ebony and Ivory" after the 1982 hit song by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.
Patrick grew up in Harlem and started playing the piano at the age of eight and immediately fell in love with it.
In 1929, aged 16, she graduated from the Martin Smith Conservatory of Music and was awarded a gold medal for having passed her piano and theory classes with honors.
At one point, she directed a choir that sang with Duke Ellington and his orchestra, a highpoint in her life.
After months in the hospital, she returned to her home in Englewood, New Jersey, able to speak a little bit, but unable to move her right hand enough to play the piano.
Their story appeared in local newspapers and they began getting invitations to play at other area hospitals and senior centers.
[citation needed] They were featured on PM Magazine, CNN and NBC Nightly News, with Tom Brokaw.