Pauline "Polly" Lawson Whitlow
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Pauline "Polly" Lawson Whitlow, 92, started life in an old farmhouse, once a hotel, at the foot of Pilot Mountain. She often recounted that there were just nine people in her graduating class and though she traveled the world she never really left her home, returning there repeatedly with difficulty in her 80s to reconnect with them and the land itself.
She made friends easily, was quiet in groups and chatty on the phone. She called herself Pollyanna and was proud of her optimism and trust. Faith mattered to her and throughout her life she was a contributing member of Episcopal and Methodist churches, sewing pew and kneeling cushions in the 1960s for the newly-formed St. Andrews in Jacksonville, Florida. She was a member of Pinnacle Methodist in the new millennium. After retiring, she enjoyed stretching her mind with bible study.
Work for Polly was an important focus before that was normal for women. She shined brightest during her years in human resources at a large Jacksonville department store. Always tall and thin, they recruited her for modeling, where she flaunted her love of fashion.
She demonstrated fearlessness over and over: owning a boat and going down a giant water slide when she couldn't swim, learning to drive and starting a new career after 50, building a house addition with no experience as a young mother, driving on the left-hand side of the road in England in her 60s and buying a house at 82. She fell, literally and figuratively, all her life-- breaking bones and sometimes her pride-- but pulled herself up time and again.
She had 2 dashing husbands, both pilots, who helped her explore her inner and outer worlds. The first, Pat Law, took her on mental and spiritual treks, the second, Floyd Whitlow, escorted her to China, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She took gentle care of both of them, and her friend Harry, during their long illnesses. She doted on six cats over the decades, two of which returned the favor during some lonely years.
She is survived by her daughter Susan and son-in-law David, a bonus-daughter Beth, a cousin-like-a-sister Ruby, a best friend of 73 years Lillian and many other admiring friends.