Sybil ‘Pauline’ Culmer

Sybil “Pauline” Culmer, 99, of Bella Vista, Ark., died Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, surrounded by her family at Circle of Life Hospice-Legacy Village in Bentonville, Ark. She was born Sept. 18, 1918, two years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed allowing women to vote.

She was born to settlers in western Oklahoma. Her daddy, Hagan, was a farmer and raised cotton and peanuts, along with dairy cattle. Her mother, Mabel, kept house, raised a garden and five girls in the dry, red-dirt of Roger Mills County. The family persisted through the Dust Bowl years, but Pauline knew she was not going to be a farmer’s wife on the Plains. Setting her sights on a career outside the home, she left the farm and went to secretarial school in Oklahoma City.

She met the love of her life, Teddie Ray Culmer, whom she married Sept. 2, 1939. They lived in the city and country, raising four children.

When they retired was the best time of their lives. She would start in the winter writing to National Parks and Chambers of Commerce to get travel brochures and maps for their next years’ adventures. They traveled the land in their RV. They made trips to see their kids scattered along both coasts and the Midwest. They opened their home to family holidays for many years. Living her last years at Concordia Catered Living in Bella Vista, she was a good friend to many people who live and work there. She was content and remarkably healthy, until her final illness.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Teddie, in 2007; and her son, Allan, in 2014.

Survivors include a son, Dwayne; two daughters, Shair and Deborah; their children and spouses, Janet, Josephine, Carl and David; six grandchildren, Joseph, David, Staci, Jennifer, Katherine and Amanda; 16 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.

Arrangements are by Bella Vista Funeral Home and Crematory.

Online condolences may be made at www.funeralmation.com.