Okey L. Patteson

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Okey L. Patteson (September 14, 1898 – July 3, 1989) was born in Raleigh County, West Virginia. He was Governor of West Virginia for the term following the 1948 election. He was a member of the United States Democratic Party and of the "machine" that totally controlled politics in that era in the state.

He is best known for his decision to place the state's first medical school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, only seven miles from the Pennsylvania border and only seventy miles from the existing University of Pittsburgh hospital, rather than in the more centrally located Charleston, West Virginia, a decison that effects the state to this day. A street in Morgantown is thus named for him, although he never attended the school.

He also is known for the initial construction of the West Virginia Turnpike, which was to be a 4-lane road system throughout the state, although, after his term, it was superseded by the interstate highway system, with only a 2-lane section between Charleston and Princeton, West Virginia ever completed.

After his term he served as general manager of the Turnpike.

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