Paula was born at home in Brooklyn, New York to Hungarian immigrant parents, while outside the house the Roaring 20's and Prohibition raged. Born to wine makers who made wine and peach brandy in the only bathtub, and quietly and illegally sold it to grateful customers, Paula was started on the lifelong path of independence and individuality.
Claiming to be 18 years old when she was really 16, she applied to Merrill Lynch on Wall Street to be their first ever female accountant. They were skeptical of the feisty red head, but she had aced their math exam and they were woefully short of men in 1942, and those things can make a profit driven company desperate, so hire her they did. She was given responsibility for portions of the midwest investments. In fact if you made money out of Missouri in 1942-43, it was probably because of the aforementioned feisty red head.
Weeknights were spent going to college, but weekends were free for her many forays into Black Harlem to listen to jazz, sip on pink gin and sneak an occasional ciagrette. It was here in the smoke-filled rooms of Harlem that she decided to become an attorney which would have been the perfect profession since no one ever won an argument with her. But at home with her alarmed immigrant parents, talk of Law School (weren't women supposed to be in the kitchen), smelling of smoke and wearing the new shorter hem lines, plans were laid to find Pauline a suitable husband, and quickly before something unthinkable happened. Suddenly Leon, a neighborhood friend was coming over to dinner all the time, being fixed his favorite dishes, and innocently lulled into a surprise engagement. Before she knew it, Pauline was walking down the aisle in a dress her mother chose, holding the flowers her mother chose, and wondering what happened to Law School.
Thirteen months after their first daughter, Laurel was born, with her mother's red hair, they put all their worldly possessions in a trailer, left New York and drove 3000 miles across the country to settle in Southern California and realize their dream of owning their own home. Four and a half years later their second daughter, Melanie, with her father's big brown eyes, was born. Two moves later, the marriage was over and Pauline found her way back to accounting, singing at the piano bar at Gordon's Rainbow Inn, becoming an accomplished painter, and the life of a single mother. Then she married Frank Strand, and rose in the ranks to Chief Financial Officer. After retirement, they moved to Grants Pass Colonial Valley. Pauline kept busy volunteering at the Grants Pass Library, painting and running the Grants Pass Art Museum gift shop. Her close relationship with her only grandchild, Sean, was cut short in 2009 with his sudden death. Frank predeceased her and was laid to rest in the Veteran's Cemetery in Eagle Point. Pauling will join him there.
In lieu of flowers, Laurel & husband Jim Perry and Melanie Strand & husband Don Miller ask if you could please make a small donation to the Rogue Valley Humane Society at https://roguevalleyhumanesociety.org/ or The Nature Conservancy in Oregon at https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/oregon/?vu=r.v_oregon.local.na.or
DONATIONS
Rogue Valley Humane Society 429 NE Scenic Dr. , Grants Pass, OR 97526
The Nature Conservancy in Oregon647 Washington St, Ashland, Oregon 97520
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