Veteran entertainment publicist Patti Webster died Friday at 49 in Somerville, N.J., her family said Friday. Representatives for Webster would only say she died from a “prolonged illness.”
Webster was CEO and founder of W&W Public Relations, which she started in 1991. Clients spanned the entertainment industry and included Halle Berry, Bow Wow, Chris Carter, Steve Harvey, Holly Robinson Peet and her HollyRod Foundation, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, Patti LaBelle, Ludacris, Mary Mary, The Estate of Otis Redding, Kelly Rowland, Rasheed Wallace, So So Def Recordings, Usher and BeBe and CeCe Winans.
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She was also an active member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). Among her many professional honors, Webster received Ebony magazine’s Ebony Communications Award of Excellence for her work in public relations and entertainment in 2008.
Webster also served as the deaconess at Shiloh Pentecostal Church in Somerville, where she grew up, and was an ordained minister. She authored the humorous book, “It Happened in Church: Stories of Humor From the Pulpit to the Pews,” released in 2008.
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Her community work included serving on the boards of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and the TReach (Therapies Reaching & Educating Autistic Children) Foundation, as well being a part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Marketing Mavericks Team.
She is survived by her father, Pastor Sidney Webster, two sisters Lori McNeil and Michelle Green and two brothers Scott Webster and Peter Webster.