Pauline Chambers

Pauline M. Chambers, age 58 of Winlock, WA., died Saturday, August 20, 2016, at the Seattle VA Hospital of complications of Small Cell Lung Cancer after a battle with cancer which lasted about 16 months.

Pauline's Celebration of Life service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 27, at Peterson Brothers Funeral Home in Willmar. Pauline's friend, Pastor Valerie Strand Patterson will be officiating. Pauline wants laughter at her memorial service. She had a great sense humor and loved laughter! In lieu of flowers, Pauline wanted people to give donations to animal rescues or shelters of their choosing or to the American Cancer Society in substitution.

Pauline Marie Chambers was born on May 18, 1958, in Willmar, Minnesota, the fourth of five children of Merwin Chambers and Beverley Hardy Chambers. She grew up in Willmar and was baptized and confirmed at the First Presbyterian Church. She graduated from Willmar High School in 1976 and Brown Institute of Electronics in Minneapolis in 1978.

Pauline's life took her to many places including Minneapolis, MN; Houston, TX; Tampa, FL, North Carolina, and Western Washington State. Most of her life she was an Electronics Technician with Teleautograph, IBM and Systel Office Automation where she was a Senior Technician and Supervisor. These jobs are what she did, not who she was. Pauline was a gentle soul with an impressive intellect who will be sorely missed by family and friends. Seeing Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens from the area many days, she took pride that Mt. St. Helens erupted on her birthday.

She joined the Air Force Reserve in 1986 as an aeromedical equipment repairperson. Pauline was deployed to Somalia and Bosnia. It wasn't all bad because she got to ride Arabians to the Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt! She attained the rank of Technical Sergeant before being disability retired.

Her dream of living in the country and owning a farm came true 11 years ago when she and Frances moved to Winlock, WA. These two "Ellie May Clampitts" had chickens, ducks and horses. They ended up raising milk and meat goats after discovering how wonderful goats were. Pauline said she was going to greet goats Camilla Jane, Veronica, Pomeranian Bitsy and other critters... and her Grandma Marie Hardy on the Rainbow Bridge.

She had taken several "bucket list" trips in the last year. These included trips to Willmar a couple times to her 40th high school reunion and a reunion with her mom and brothers; trip to Steve and Barb's family reunion in Xenia, OH; a trip to her favorite Hawaiian island, Kauai and a side trip to Oahu; there was a trip to Crater Lake, OR, and Yosemite National Park; she was happy to see her in-laws, the Caraveos; and she had a fun trip visiting her cousin, Diane, in Long Beach, CA. She loved reading, listening to and watching anything sci-fi, particularly the classics.

Pauline had been a reading fanatic since childhood. Her knowledge of rocks and minerals was encyclopedic. Her hobby of fixing broken electronics had kept her mind sharp and her hands occupied recently. Her passion was fishing. Walleye especially. Her biggest fish lately was a 40-inch Tiger Muskie caught in Western Washington.

She leaves behind wife, Frances Morton of Winlock, WA.; her mother, Beverley Chambers of Willmar and three brothers, Merwin (and Corliss) Chambers of Atlanta, GA., Rick (and Marcia) Chambers of Willmar, MN., and Dr. Steve (and Barb) Chambers of Xenia, OH. Also surviving are her nieces and nephews; Dena, Sara, Ryan, Adam, Jessica, Eric, Erin, Corey, Logan, and Andrew; and her ten grandnieces. She loved them all dearly.

Pauline was preceded in death by her paternal and maternal grandparents, her father, Merwin in 1998 and her younger sister, Sheila in 2013.