Pauline Olsen

Pauline Hurst Olsen, 99, recently of Fountain Hills, AZ, died on March 23, 2017. She is survived by her son Harlan and his wife Annette, her daughter Jacqueline and her husband Jack, and her daughter Pamela and her husband David. Pauline’s husband Frederick Olsen preceded her in death in June 1998.

Pauline was born March 4, 1918, in Achilles, Rawlins County, a farming community in northwest Kansas. Her father Aubra Hurst was a wheat farmer who married Hazel Riblett. Pauline was the fourth oldest of nine children.

At 14, Pauline left the farm to attend high school about 18 miles from home in Oberlin where she boarded with her sisters. Although they visited home frequently on school holidays and during the summer, the Hurst children developed remarkable self-reliance and independence. In addition to her academic studies, Pauline earned a high school letter for participation in basketball, softball and track. Upon graduation from Decatur High School, Oberlin, she also earned a Kansas State Normal Certificate enabling her to become an elementary teacher in a one-room country school south of Achilles where she lived with her oldest sister and her husband. In addition to teaching all grades, Pauline became a player/coach of the school’s basketball and softball teams so that her students could field a competitive team.

She taught at Rosedale School in 1936-1937 at the height of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days on the Great Plains. Times were tough when brother Johnny Hurst left the farm to mine silver in Idaho. When he fell ill, Pauline resigned her teaching position so that she could assist her recuperating brother in Mullen, Idaho. Shortly after arriving in Idaho, she met Fred Olsen, a handsome, dashing miner from the Iron Ranges of northern Minnesota. Because labor troubles temporarily closed the silver mines, Fred and Pauline discovered they had a lot of time to see one another. Six weeks later they married on July 3, 1937.

With war on the horizon, Fred and Pauline moved to Seattle where Fred found employment with the Boeing Airplane Company. On the road again for the Boeing Company, Pauline managed the family’s moves from Seattle to Tucson, Arizona; Grand Island, Nebraska; Ft. Walton, Florida; Wichita, Kansas; and Amarillo, Texas. After the end of the Korean War, her family finally resettled for good in Seattle where in 1959 she and Fred built their dream house on a ridge in south Seattle overlooking the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.

In addition to teaching Sunday school and vacation Bible school at a community Lutheran Church, Pauline was active in local bowling leagues in which she won league championships on mixed doubles and women’s teams. She was also an avid clam digger on Washington’s Pacific beaches and for a long time held the family’s record for catching the largest King salmon on rod and reel.

After her husband’s retirement in1976, Pauline and Fred moved to Sun City West, Arizona, in 1985 to enjoy western sunsets and mild winters. Within her family, Pauline will be remembered for her steadfast faith, her determined independence, her generosity to family, friends, and church, her dry humor, and her love of sentimental singing. She also had an artistic bent reflected in her crocheting, sewing, cooper tooling, rosemåling, and handmade Chrismons. She was a great cook whose homemade fudge was as brown, rich and silky as the finest gravy. She moved to Scottsdale and Fountain Hills in her last years where she shared joy, hope, and optimism with her elderly companions.

In addition to her three children and their spouses, Pauline is survived by 18 grandchildren and spouses and 21 great grandchildren and spouses.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Pauline's name to either:

North Scottsdale United Methodist Church

11735 N Scottsdale Rd.

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Or

VerdeCares

18934 E. Avenida Del Ray #106

Rio Verde, AZ 85263

Arrangements under the direction of Sunland Memorial Park, Mortuary & Cremation Center, Sun City, AZ.