Paula (Chaon) Harris

Paula J. Harris (nee Chaon) of Glen Ellyn, IL passed awayon Sept. 27, 2021 from complications associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.  In her final weeks, she felt the love of family and friends who shared memories and celebrated Paula’s life. 

Paula was energetic and tireless in her care for her family.  More than anything else, she expressed her love through her effortless attention to her family, juggling teenagers’ schedules, providing three meals per day and an endless supply of fresh baked goods, getting everyone to church on time, or showing up for a dance recital.  She was the thread that sewed together her family’s lives and defined the values that guided them. Paula epitomized love and home with the smile on her face and the smells in her kitchen.  Her artistic talents were characterized in her sewing, needlework, baking and cake decorating for family, friends, the church and charitable causes.  With her husband, William P. Harris, she raised six children and was blessed by her seven grandchildren.  Her many talents and passions are reflected in those of her grandchildren: cooking, sewing, canning, baking, creating art, and most of all, nurturing.  Her values of hard work, honesty, kindness, and selflessness will live in the hearts of her children and grandchildren. 

Paula will be remembered by the many Halloween costumes and Easter dresses she sewed, the dinner rolls she baked for the holidays, the roller skates she sported at Mendota’s Kakusha Park, the yard stick she wielded but never used,12 kinds of Christmas cookies, countless Christmas ornaments, strawberry picking, fun times and good friends at work, and the selfless pursuit of her family’s happiness. 

Paula is survived by her husband of 65 years, William Harris, her sisters Donna Dinges (Don) of Sublette, IL, and Jeanette Newkirk (Merlin) of Chico, CA, her brother Lawrence (Julia) of Wheaton, her six children Julia (Columbia, SC), Michael (Atlanta, GA), Michelle (Glen Ellyn, IL), Kathleen (Terry Warzecha) of Fish Creek, WI, Patricia Balmer (Brad) of Lisbon, WIand Matthew (Elizabeth) of Wilmette, IL, her grandchildren Caitlin Harris, RileyMaher, AnnieWarzecha, HenryWarzecha, Olivia Harris, Mairenn Balmer and Hagen Balmer, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.  We will miss you.

Visitation will be held on Oct. 10, 2021, 2:00-6:00pm in the Cantigny Visitor Center, Joseph Medill Room, 1S151 Winfield Road, Wheaton, IL.  Funeral services will be held at St. Petronille Parish on Oct. 11 at 11am, 420 Glenwood Avenue, Glen Ellyn, IL.  In lieu of flowers, donations in Paula’s honor will be gratefully accepted by St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital at www.stjude.org. 

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