Born in Detroit, Michigan as Patricia Jean Ehrhardt, Boyle received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State University and a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School in 1963.

She was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit from 1965 to 1970.

She was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 22, 1978, and received her commission the following day.

She resigned on April 20, 1983, to be appointed as an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

[1] Boyle died on January 13, 2014, of respiratory failure at the age of 76, in Fort Myers, Florida.