"Farmer-Patrick spent her first 11 years living with an aunt, and then her grandmother, in Jamaica. Then her great-aunt Vita Farmer adopted her and moved her to Brooklyn. She attended a Pentecostal church six days a week (and three times each Sunday). The strict religious upbringing motivated her to join the Flashettes Track Club, mainly to get out of the house. At first, she had to run in a skirt, for religious reasons, but gradually she and coach Don Johnson were able to convince her "Mother Farmer" that shorts were the way to go."
