There were two politicians in the Donham household: the one in the public eye and the one behind the scenes, said her son, Dane Donham.

His mother, Lillian “Pat” Donham, 82, of Middletown, passed away Thursday at Spring Hills Middletown, and Dane Donham remembered her for the way she ran their home.

Together, he said, she and her late husband, William Donham, a longtime politician, made “a pretty good team.”

Donham, 51, called his mother “extremely outgoing,” and said she could “blend in any crowd” during the many public functions she attended with her husband, who spent 39 years as an elected official as a former Middletown councilman, Butler County commissioner and member of the House of Representatives from 1972-84. He died in 1998.

While his mother lacked any formal education, she used her “common sense approach” and she normally was right because she possessed “a good read of people,” he said.

Mrs. Donham’s friend, Bill Wilmer, 88, called her “one of the nicest people” he ever met.

“She was a marvelous person,” he said. “She lived a real good life.”

Mrs. Donham worked as a mail room supervisor for Armco Steel Corp., retiring in 1984. She was a member of University Baptist Church, the Armco Retired Ladies Golf League, the Holy Trinity Ladies Bowling League, the Middletown Women’s Bowling Hall of Fame and the Knights of Pythias and was a volunteer for Salvation Army.

Visitation will be from 1 to 2 p.m. Monday at Wilson-Schramm-Spaulding Funeral Home, 3805 Roosevelt Blvd., Middletown, with the Rev. Charles Deglow officiating. The funeral starts at 2 p.m. Interment will be at Woodside Cemetery.