Pauline Thelma Doak

On Saturday, February 25, 2012, Pauline Thelma Grimm Doak, 89, left this life to be with her heavenly father and her departed husband who she had so missed. She died at home with her daughter at her bedside and loving her into the next life as she, herself had done for her husband and mother. She was born March 26, 1922, in Letart Falls, Ohio, to Everett E. and Ilda A. Wiseman Grimm. She was raised in Vienna and Parkersburg, attending Neale School and graduating from Parkersburg High School with the class of 1940. In her early years, she was in 4H which she thoroughly enjoyed. She was a member of The Belpre Eastern Star where she was past Worthy Matron. She was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church where she had served on committees and started a handbell choir which she dearly loved. Pauline was smart, spunky, industrious, and a perfectionist. She was a “worker”. She was a bookkeeper and began taking dictation and typing jobs while in high school. She later worked for Imperial Ice Cream where she was “forced” to try out new flavors. Later, she worked for Grimm Construction Co., the Red Cross, and then retired from Criss Concrete Company. She, in her seventies, returned to work to help her younger brother set up and run his own construction company. Pauline married Larry Doak in Boston in 1943. A young, twenty-one year old woman boarded a train in Parkersburg to travel to Boston to marry the man she loved only to find out once she got there that his long furlough was to be cut short, very short. Married on Milk Street in Boston by a judge, they took a cab to the ship and Larry boarded, following the skipper, only fifteen minutes after they took their vows. That was wartime. It was the start of sixty-three years of marriage. Larry was at sea much of those early years and he was on the first ship sunk in the Normandy Invasion (D-Day). It was days before she knew whether her husband was dead or alive. Their times in port were fun, though, as they spent time with other young couples who were sharing the same experiences. Later, they tried desperately to have children to no avail. God intervened and they were able to adopt Robert (Bob) and Debra (Debbie) who she said until the end were the two greatest joys of her life. She spent the last seven years and a half living with Debbie. Pauline was known for her outstanding cooking. She could cook wild game like no other. This was good since Larry loved to hunt and fish. Yearly trips to Canada yielded large catches of Walleye. They even took sitters in their children's early years so they could fish together. She and Larry traveled the country and provided a life for their children that had been unimaginable to a depression era child. Christmas was extravagant. Pauline and Larry literally danced through life. They jitterbugged in the forty's and continued with square dancing and ballroom dancing until physically they could no longer do it. Even then, they would dance the few steps still in them to Lawrence Welk on Saturday evenings. When that dancing ended in 2006 with the passing of Larry, life was never the same. She grieved until her past breath. Last year's passing of grandson, Robert (Rob, Bobby), a child who she had helped raise and who she spoke with numerous times a day, started the steady decline of her health. She had survived medical issues that would have permanently altered others and she had bounced back. His death and her ensuing grief took their toll. The main focus of her life was gone. And so, with defenses down, pneumonia easily stole her breath, and ultimately, her life. Pauline is survived by son, Robert Sr. and daughter, Debra. She is also survived by granddaughters, Robyn (Tommy) Cline and Diedre (Brian) Willis. She has seven great-grandchildren, Preston and Brandon Kerns, Bryce and Broc Willis, Jasmine Dillon, and Kamry and Landin Doak. She is also survived by her “second daughter”, Melanie Bennett Fulmer who had helped care for her, and her “second son” Jim Conley, and the mother of Robert's two younger children, Leila Stephens. She is also survived by three step-granddaughters; six step-great-grandchildren; and one step-great-great-granddaughter. She is survived by one brother, Joseph Grimm, and several nieces and nephews and their children. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her grandson, and one brother, Paul Grimm, Sr.Her secret to life was “eat dessert first”. Sweets and a cup of hot, very hot, coffee were her two favorite things. Somewhere in that, there's a lesson. Funeral services will be 12-noon Tuesday February 28, 2012, at the Lambert-Tatman Funeral Home, 3005 Grand Central Ave., Vienna, with Rev. Nancy Hamm and Pastor Daniel Bryan officiating. Entombment will follow at Sunset Memory Gardens. The family will receive friends from 5-8PM on Monday February 27, 2012 and from 9AM until time of services on Tuesday at the funeral home. A guestbook is available for sharing online condolences with the family at www.lamberttatman.com.