Pauline Evelyn Cutright

Pauline Evelyn Cutright, born January 20, 1923 in Dickens Iowa, to Evelyn and Paul Fingerson passed quietly in the presence of her family on September 7, 2017 at Covenant Hospice, in Panama City, Florida. Wife, homemaker mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Pauline shared her life for almost 75 years with her high school sweetheart, Wilber (Bill) Cutright. Their life together spanned the whole of the United States and beyond. Idaho, Oregon, California, Colorado, Missouri, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, Connecticut, Arizona, Alaska, Washington, Zaire, and Sudan; a life full of adventure and challenge that included our history from the horse and buggy era to the space age.
They married in 1942 at the age of 19 in Bliss, Idaho. Pauline told Bill that although he was the son of a ranch foreman, she saw more in him than spending summers in the high mountains living in a shepherd’s wagon. And so, together, they stretched out their reach and looked beyond their homes in the Snake River valley. Bill served the war years repairing the bombers that were shot up and too ruined to go on in the great war while Pauline was the homemaker and soon to be mother. California and Oregon was home for the post war years where power, water, sawmills and lumber were the core of the economy and the fuel for the young couple’s life. A small trailer and a series of construction camps high in the Cascade Mountains, building hydroelectric dams that powered the northwest was the beginning of her family, a girl and a boy and then two more sons to follow. By ’56, with four children at home they ventured once more into farming, but the excitement and adventure of construction projects around the world drew them away from their farming venture again. In 59 the farm was left behind, and the westerners migrated east, to Colorado, stretching once again, building missiles bases for the cold war, and then to Florida, building the infrastructure for the exploration of the moon, the Apollo program. Pauline rode herd on this family rabble making new homes through Colorado, Missouri, Florida, Iowa, Connecticut and Virginia, until the four children had all grown away, building their own families and careers. And then, with the spirit of adventure that was Pauline and Bill, took on challenges of power, water and roads for the benefit of Zaire, and then Sudan. The African adventures completed, the now grandparents came back to the United States, coming back to Idaho, Washington and Alaska. From their four children came 11 grand kids, each a focus of Pauline’s loving care and wisdom. And then there were 18 great grandchildren and in-law families to shape and hold and advise. She watched and prayed over all of them so that they in their turn could learn and see her wisdom on the mysteries of, life, love, music, and art; helping their large and growing families succeed in building their own families and careers. She stayed beautiful; thin, tall, and compassionate all her life. And all knew well the foundation of the world Pauline and Bill saw and built, through dark places and bright, through hardships and victories, a life well lived. She is born anew now, safe and sound. Her legacy lives on in each child and child of child.

She is preceded by her parents, Paul and Evelyn, and brother Eugene Fingerson, and survived by her sister JoAnn (Fingerson) Fabie, her daughter Lois Duncan and husband Tommy, her sons Bruce Cutright and wife Diana, Warren Cutright and wife Ruth, Edwin Cutright and wife Kathy. And the families of her 18 great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM Wednesday, September 13, 2017, at the First Presbyterian Church of Panama City with Dr. Richard Watson officiating. Entombment will follow at Evergreen Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends at the Church from 10:00 AM until service time at 11:00.

Kent-Forest Lawn, 2403 Harrison Avenue, 763-4694
www.kentforestlawn.com

 

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