Patricia Ella Perreault Bennett, a high school teacher and graduate of Mount Holyoke College, was born on December 5, 1950 in Holyoke, Massachusetts to Roger Rene Perreault, Deputy Chief Police Sergeant of the South Hadley, Massachusetts Police Department, and Elizabeth G. Gyrisko Perreault. She attended South Hadley High School then went to Mount Holyoke College from 1968- 1972, graduating with a degree in mathematics. Between 1972-1980 she worked as a mathematics teacher and athletics coach at Pittsfield Junior/Senior High School (Pittsfield, New Hampshire), Cohasset Junior/Senior High School (Cohasset, Massachusetts), and Framingham (Massachusetts) High School. During this time, she was also a cheerleader for the New England Patriots Football team. She left teaching in 1980 and became and actuarial assistant for the Wyatt Co., of Washington, D.C. In 1981, she married William P. Bennett, a Washington, D.C trial lawyer for the U.S. Postal Service. The Bennetts had two daughters.
From the guide to the Patricia E. P. Bennett Papers MS 0838., 1968-2002, n.d., 1968-1972, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)
