Barbara Paulsen

Barbara Mae Paulsen, age 86, of Arlington, SD, passed away on Monday, May 29, 2023, at Avantara Care Center in Lake Norden, SD.

Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 AM on Friday, June 2, 2023, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Arlington, SD. Reverend Jackie J. Braun will officiate.

Burial to follow at Arlington Cemetery.

Visitation will be held at the Trinity Lutheran Church in the hour prior to the funeral service.

Barbara Jones Paulsen was born on July 20, 1936, to Byron and Edith (Aaron) Jones in Arlington, SD, the youngest of three and the only girl.

She was born a farm girl and stayed on the farm although she attended the University of South Dakota after graduating from Arlington High School, while working as a nurse’s aide at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls. She returned to Arlington to work at Citizen’s State Bank.

Barb met Cecil Paulsen through both of their fathers. They were married on November 6, 1960, in the Methodist Church in Arlington.

They moved to Illinois to Madison and back to Arlington to settle on the Aaron homestead in 1966.

They had three wonderful children (one of the children wrote this). She loved going to grandchildren’s events and rarely missed one. She loved to solve problems, make things out of nothing, and her children and grandchildren, not necessarily in that order. It depended on the day.

She was “chief cook and bottle washer,” as well as cow milker, calf feeder, vet, and carpenter. Give her a hammer and a couple bent nails and some wood and she could make almost anything. Those same carpenter’s hands could redesign and sew a dress the next day.

She was a farm girl and a fabulous mother and grandmother. She was loved and will be missed.

Barb is survived by her daughter Judy Cooley (Jerry) of Brookings, Jane Carlson (David) of Lake Preston, and Joe Paulsen (Stacy) of Avon; seven grandchildren: Alex Sogn (Andrew) and Aaron Cooley (Logan Hoffman) of Brookings, Kenli Carlson (Allen Strande) of Arlington, and Cecili Carlson of Lake Preston; Sophi, Charli, and Levi Paulsen of Avon; and her great-grandson Anson of Brookings.

Arrangements by Crawford-Osthus Funeral Chapel                                          www.crawfordosthus.com

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