Pauline Hudgins

On September 22, 1922, Pauline Counts Hudgins graced the earth and her family’s lives with her presence. She was delivered by her great grandmother, Didima Counts, a midwife, to Arvil and Eura Counts of Selton, Va. She was the second child and the second daughter of this lucky couple. Pauline came onto this plane wanting to be of help and she was from the beginning to the end of her life. She loved children and animals as well as all the domestic arts including gardening and craft work. Even as a child she had a garden and helped with the housework and the younger children, her brothers, Douglas and Jack. She became the “go to” person for her mother and later in life, her father as well. When she was 17 years old and just short of graduating from high school, Pauline was pulled from school and drafted into service to care for the latest arrival in the family, her sister, Betty Sue. Later her mother and father produced two more children: Mitchel Carlisle and Sharon and she cared for them as well. Not finishing high school was one of the major disappointments of her life as she had a lively, active mind and loved all learning. She also loved to teach and spent many hours teaching her younger siblings how to read and write, garden, do craft work, etc. When WWII started, Pauline left home to work at varied jobs in whatever capacity she could find work in order to support the family. She made parachutes and manufactured nuts and bolts. She was a “Rosy the Riveter.” Along the way, before he left to join the Army, she married Burns Sutherland. Burns was her brother in law as her older sister, Haze, had married Elmer his brother and so the Counts/Sutherland alliance was reinforced. When Burns returned from the war and he and Pauline were together again, they lived for periods of time with Arvil and Eura and the younger children saw Burns as another brother/father. In 1950 the family moved to Royal Oak, Mi. and then on to Birmingham where Pauline continued to work in manufacturing and she and Burns bought a home in Birmingham a few blocks from Arvil and Eura. Unfortunately, in 1975 Burns passed away early at the age of 54. Pauline continued to live and work in Michigan for two more years until she met her second husband, Russell Hudgins. They married in July 1977 and moved to Tenn., near the Hudgins family where they lived until Russell passed away in 2007. In 2011, at age 89, Pauline moved to Ca. to live with her sister until her transition on March 16, 2018 just six month shy of her 96 birthday. She died peacefully surrounded by her caregivers, hospice and her family. It is with great sadness that we bid goodbye to this spirited, talented, devoted woman who gave so selflessly to her loved ones all of her life, who after the loss of two pregnancies, cared for her younger siblings, her nieces and nephews. We will put her to rest between the two men she loved and lost and near the family members she so devotedly served. It is with great anticipation that we look forward to our next meeting with her in a happier time and place. Yours was a life well lived, Pauline. We salute you and we love and miss you. On September 22, 2018, at noon there will be sharing circle service at the Counts Family Cemetery in Aily along with Russell Hudgins. There will be a buffet afterward for family and friends at the Breaks Conference Center restaurant, Breaks.

Pauline Hudgins

September 22, 1922 - March 16, 2018