Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a wealthy family, Patricia Taylor had tutors and attended Crofton House School. She was one of the three children of Austin Cotterell Taylor, a self-made industrialist, rich from lumber and mining. Her mother, Kathleen Elliott, was a daughter of the chief of police of Winnipeg. Pat went to Vassar College in 1948 but left to marry William F. Buckley Jr., the older brother of her Vassar roommate, Patricia Lee Buckley. (Patricia Lee Buckley later married L. Brent Bozell Jr., and they were the parents of conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III.) William and Patricia Buckley had one child, writer Christopher Buckley.