Leyden, Patricia Riley

Pat was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in four of the five boroughs of New York City at various times. Her all girls high school experience at The Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica, New York, inspired her to want a non-traditional career for a woman of the 1960s. A graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York, Pat did just that when she became a federal law enforcement officer with the U.S. Customs Service in 1971. Wearing a uniform and a badge and carrying a gun, Pat arrested drug smugglers, among other law enforcement duties, while working at J.F.K. Airport. Later, as a C...