Feb. 18, 1923 - Nov. 14, 2011
ELKHART — Paula M. Stevens, 88,
of Elkhart, passed away in her home of 60 years, surrounded by her loved
ones, on Monday, Nov. 14, 2011, after a massive stroke.
She was
born in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 18, 1923, to Pauline (Millard), who
passed days later, and Elkhart native Paul Marchesseau, brother of
Josephine Hooley, nurse to Dr. Tolson after whom Tolson Center is named.
Raised
in Kenosha, Wis., Paula moved to Elkhart after her graduation in 1941
where she worked for the next two years as a switchboard operator for
General Telephone. In 1943, she transferred her efforts to war work
testing altimeters for the now defunct Buescher Band Instrument Company
until she enlisted in the newly established Naval WAVES in 1945. After
boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx, N.Y., she was stationed at the
Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas for the duration of her
service. When asked about what she most prized about her time serving
our country, she wrote, “I met so many kinds of people it gave me an
understanding of people and of myself.”
After her discharge, she returned to Buescher, where she met the late Howard Stevens, whom she married on Jan. 16, 1948.
After
the birth of her first child, Marcia, in 1952, she left the business
world to her husband who moved from Buescher when it closed to Vincent
Bach, where he served a decade as president of the local UAW.
Both were founding and active members of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Elkhart.
After Howard’s death in 1990, Paula studied ballroom dance with Sally Lee and became an active member of USA Dance.
She
is survived by her two children, Marcia Stevens of Wichita, Kan., and
Thomas Stevens of Middlebury; her stepdaughters, Sheri Conley of Florida
and Vicki Barrett of Elkhart; and her grandchildren, Sarah Stevens of
Chicago and James and Zachary Stevens of Middlebury.
Elkhart Cremations Services has been entrusted with arrangements.
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