Pamela Emerald May Paulssen

TYLER — Services for Pamela Emerald May Paulssen, 93, formerly of Tyler, Texas, will be held on Saturday, December 3, at 1:00 pm at First Presbyterian Church of Tyler with Dr. Stewart Baskin officiating. An informal reception will be held immediately following the service. Pamela died peacefully on November 6th in Tyler, Texas. She was born in Dinapore, India on May 5, 1929 to the late John Alexander Smith and Bernal Ann Smith. Pamela will be remembered for her fun-loving spirit and how she relished entertaining friends and family. She always had an affinity for children and her greatest joy was spending time with and looking at photographs of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had a talent for arts and crafts, she would knit and sew beautiful clothes for her family. In retirement she took up painting and her artwork graces the walls of many friends and family members.

Pamela was a 4th generation British Indian. She spent her latter childhood in Delhi, India. She had interesting stories of having exotic animals as pets and watching out for poisonous snakes.

In Delhi, she met Horst Walter Arnold Paulssen, a German that had been displaced during WW2. They were married on January 4, 1951. In 1954, she and Walter immigrated to the US and settled in Muskegon, Michigan. He was hired by Manning Maxwell and Moore as a draftsman and worked his way up to chief engineer. Pamela was a homemaker and stay-at-home mom to their only daughter, Anita, until the family started a windsurfing business in 1974. In 1982, they opened a retail windsurfing store in Spring Lake Michigan. Pamela was the book keeper and buyer for the clothes and accessories in the store. They became the largest windsurfing retailer in the Midwest, introducing and fostering the sport throughout the region and even hosted the National Windsurfing Championships. The windsurfing business enabled Walter to retire from engineering, allowed them to escape the Michigan winters and make Galveston, Texas their winter home. In 2006 they moved to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. However, with Walter’s declining health, they found they needed to be near their daughter and in 2011 they moved to Tyler, Texas.

Pamela loved her family and was much loved by them. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-mother, sister and aunt. Pamela was preceded in death by her husband Walter, sisters, Lorna Smith, Joan Mathias, Patricia Lythgo and brother John Smith. She is survived by her daughter Anita Paulssen, granddaughter Brynn Breimayer Rankin and husband Ryan Rankin, grandson Andrew Breimayer and wife Molly Finlay, great grandchildren, Rylee Rankin, Elliana Rankin, and Burl Breimayer, and sister-in-law, Ilse Naj. Her final resting place with be Rose Hill Cemetery in Tyler, Tx, along with her beloved Walter. Her family would like to thank her many kind and devoted caregivers, aids and nurses, in particular her longtime caregivers, Felicia Bailey and Carolyn Batten. Memorials in honor of Pamela may be made to Tyler Day Nursery, 2901 W. Gentry Pkwy, Tyler 75707, www.tylerdaynursery.org or Hospice of East Texas, 4111 University Blvd, Tyler 75701, www.hospiceofeasttexas