Mary Catherine Paulson

Mary Catherine (Lee) PAULSON, (Girvan, Schultheis, Wilcox, Boyack) May 2,1910 ~ June 21, 2007 Mary was born in Tacoma, WA to Harry and Catherine (Walsh) Lee. She was raised in Seattle, graduated from Lincoln High School, and attended Wilson's Business College. She worked for 35 years at the King County Department of Public Assistance (DSHS). She was very athletic and played basketball, tennis, badminton, field hockey, golf, bowled, and fished. While married to Henry Schultheis, a Seattle policeman, she enjoyed hosting parties after police functions and kept score at some of their shooting matches. Their marriage ended in divorce as did her first marriage to Elmer Girvan. She remarried and retired from the state to move to Westport, WA with her husband, Frank Wilcox. There they owned and operated Lewis Charters and while Mary ran the office Frank skippered the Bonanza. They fished on many WA lakes and rivers in their free time. After Frank's death in 1969 she moved back to Seattle. For a few years she was secretary at St. John Catholic Church in Seattle where she was a parishioner for most of her life. In 1976 she married Aubrey Boyack from Trinidad, West Indies. They loved to travel and to take cruises. Because of the heat and humidity in Trinidad they spent their summers in Seattle and winters in the islands. After Aubrey's passing she remained in Seattle enjoying time with family and friends. In 1995 she found love once again and married Jay Paulson who had retired from Boeing after 40+ yrs. They lived in his beautiful home in north Seattle and spent many hours just chatting about their life experiences and playing with Sasha, their Bernese Mountain dog. Mary and Jay never missed watching the Mariners and Sonics games on TV. They had a few nice trips together taking a steamboat up the Mississippi River twice and a cruise through the Panama Canal. Both loved to dine out and visit the local casinos, where they enjoyed the slot machines. In 2000 they moved to a lovely smaller home in Mill Creek, WA but unfortunately, Jay passed away a year later. Mary did not want to move out of her home and was able to live there on her own with Sasha until Sasha died in 2003. Mary then adopted Babs (her toy poodle) and Babs kept Mary company until the day after her 97th birthday. She was feeling well and celebrated her big day with friends and family but the next day became ill and was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. After a short time there she went into a nursing home for rehab and passed away in her sleep seven weeks later. Mary was very social, always ready to party, and still very young at heart. She had a great long life and will be missed by all of us. In addition to Frank, Aubrey and Jay, Mary was preceded in death by her two sisters, Verde (Lee) Finlay and Catherine (Katie) Lee, and her two brothers, William (Bill) Lee and Harry Lee. She is survived by loving nieces and nephews, cousins, and good friends. At her request there was no memorial service and she was cremated and inurned in the mausoleum at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline, WA.