Did some trouble-shooting, and don't know why, but the problem was caused by a buss in the signal chain. Toms were => "toms buss," => "Drum Sum" buss=> "all music buss" => master. Everything either interleaved or stereo busses. All plugins in the path stereo.
Hat was => "drum sum" buss => "all music buss" => master.
The problem was the stereo drum buss. Process of elimination routing directly from toms and hat to the master, and working backward through the busses. Adding the drum sum buss back into the mix revealed the problem. Eliminated in, created a new stereo buss set up exactly the same as the defective one, and now life is good. Panning works great. Who knows what ghost was in the bad buss machine... frustrating nonetheless.
I can't figure out how to edit my original post and add SOLVED to the header... might help someone else trouble shoot a similar issue. Thanks again for weighing in! Onward...