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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