Marie Pauline Barrutia

Marie Pauline Barrutia, 87, left Ashley Manor Memory Care in Mountain Home to go

home to Our Lord on July 23, 2024. She went by the name of Pauline, as all seven of her sisters also shared the first name of Marie, a common French custom at the time.

Pauline was born on March 24, 1937, in Chisholm, Maine, the eighth of nine children born to Florence and Aurelien Perron. She entered the United States Air Force in 1961, where she studied nursing and also met her future husband, John Barrutia, during the time she was stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base.

After her honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1964, she decided to remain

“stationed” in Mountain Home for the rest of her life as she and John worked to build a life together there. Pauline and John had six children together, one of whom died shortly after birth, and Pauline would be a stay-at-home mom for the next nineteen years of her life. Everyone who knew her knew that she cherished this most important job and poured everything into being a great mom for her kids. During this time, she was actively involved with Idaho Right to Life, was a 4-H leader to countless numbers of kids and served at the director of the CCD program of religious education for the youth at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. She decided to go back to work in 1983, eventually serving as the director of nursing at Elmore Memorial Nursing Home, where she would finish out her career until her retirement in 1997. She was an active member of Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church until the time when her dementia made it no longer possible to attend.

In retirement, Pauline was an active volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen and assisted many older members in the community to get to their appointments and to run their errands. She also volunteered at East Elementary, where the students loved her so much that they affectionately called her the same name as her grandkids, “Meme,” the French name for Grandma. She was known for her contagious laugh and smile and was always the happiest when she was serving others. It is this that will be remembered the most when she is thought of by those who love her and by those who were the recipients of her tender care.

Pauline was preceded in death by her mother and father, Florence and Aurelien Perron of Jay, Maine, by her siblings, Roger Perron of Jay, Maine, Jeannine Williams of Livermore Falls, Maine, Rejeanne Paradis of Farmington, Maine, Annette Richards of Jay, Maine, and Aline Fawcett of Providence, Rhode Island, by her ex-husband, John Barrutia, and by her infant daughter, Cynthia Barrutia. She is survived by her sisters, Vivian Flagg of Brandon, Florida, and Claudette Warren of Fayetteville, Arkansas, one brother, Paul Perron of Parsippany, New Jersey, by her children, John Barrutia (Shelley), Paul Barrutia, Tonya Barrutia, Patti (John) Watson, Juli (Tim) Corder, by eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A rosary will be prayed at 1:30 p.m. with the funeral Mass to follow at 2:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Mountain Home on August 17, followed by full military honors and a funeral dinner at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Hall. A private burial with the family will take place at the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Boise on Wednesday, August 21.

Donations may be offered in Pauline’s memory to St. Vincent de Paul or to Ashley

Manor in Mountain Home.