Pauline Clothier was born in 1927 at Dubbo hospital. She was the firstborn and had a younger brother, Jack.
Her mother was a pianist with cap and gown. Her father was a butcher and had a horse and cart delivery service and he bred and raced greyhounds. Her love for horses and dogs and music started at an early age.
School holidays were always on her Aunty’s dairy farm at Dubbo with horses to ride as well.
Pauline moved to Sydney when she was 12 and lived with her grandparents who owned a milk bar, and she loved making milkshakes after school. She attended Riverside Girls High where she learnt office techniques. Her parents then moved to Balmain, where she joined them. She worked with her dad in Henry Wolfs, a huge famous butcher shop in the city.
Pauline applied to be a nurse and was accepted, but her mother hid the letter as she didn’t want her to become a nurse. When her mother died 45 years later, the nurse acceptance letter was in the will! How sad, but what a different life she would have had!
She met her husband, Charles Marr at Sydney Rowing Club where he was a rower and a coach, in his
later years, and was married on 28th October 1948. The new couple moved into a house at Coogee
where they welcomed their first daughter, Janice in 1949. Their second daughter, Margaret, was born
in 1952 and the family moved to Gladesville in 1952.
Wherever she lived, Pauline designed her gardens beautifully. She could strike and grow anything and specialised in African violets and hydrangeas. Her hobbies were incredible, whatever she tried she succeeded; oil painting houses, and sold some macrame, basket weaving, cooking and dressmaking, including her two daughter’s wedding dresses plus everything from when they were born.
She has loved animals and had dogs all her life, and loved all of creation and realised there was a creator. She started studying the Bible and became a Jehovah’s Witness when she was in her 30s. She became a keen bible student and taught many, including her two daughters and their children. She has continued to preach the good news and loves bible prophecy, it gives her such joy and excitement in life.
Pauline became a grandmother at 47. She has five grandsons and five granddaughters. She now has eight great grandsons and seven great granddaughters. She moved to Jervis Bay on the South Coast after her husband retired and spent 30 years there where she loved swimming and walking along beach and entertained hundreds of friends and family. They then returned to Hunters Hill, where she spent 15 years before she became a resident of Ashburn House in Gladesville. She has been a widow for 31 years.
She was also famous for her cooking, especially of pavlovas, sponge cakes and lamingtons. Everyone loved them, and she must have cooked thousands for others, especially those families who had troubles. Pauline was always very generous and kind.
Last year, she did an ancestry test and found she had famous Ladys, Knights, Princes and castles in her English heritage. This was quite amazing, because her husband always said he was from royal English families and her mother was just a country girl! But the tables have turned!
For more information about Ashburn House in Gladesville or any other aged care options please read about our Homes or contact us for more information.
