Pauline Hoover Brockman

Pauline Hoover Brockman was born in Richmond, Indiana, to James Hoover and Ethel Manis on March 19, 1917 where she was born and raised with 4 sisters Ruth, Shirley, Millie and Betty and one brother Bob, all of whom preceded her in death. 

She married Floyd Brockman on June 20th, 1936 and he moved her from the city she grew up in to the wilds of the eastern plains of Colorado to be a dry land wheat farmer. They had three children, Linda, Rick Brockman (who preceded her in death) and Marvin. They worked and lived off the land raising cattle, pigs, gardens and three rowdy children (well ok, once sweet, adoring daughter and two wild and crazy sons!) After many years of a hard life they sold the farm and moved to the top of the world (or least to them) they moved to the top of Rist Canyon where they truly became mountain folk. Pauline loved nothing more than tending her garden, trying to keep the deer out of it and feeding her hummingbirds. She loved it when the neighbors kids would ride their horses up to visit them, and raid her candy and cookie jars. She loved getting snowed in and helping the neighbors prepare for the long winters up the mountain, she would cook huge meals and can veggies and stockpile for the winter! The hardest thing Pauline did was to move down off the mountain after Floyd passed, she stayed up by herself until she was well into her 70s, still digging herself out of snowbanks and fending for herself. Her one faithful companion for the majority of her years by herself was her trusty Chihuahua Tattoo. In the early 1990s she developed macular degeneration, which left her legally blind, and after a stroke at the age of 80, she went into assisted living. 

In 2005 she developed Alzheimer's and was moved into the Alzheimer's unit where she stayed until her passing. Pauline loved her grandchildren, and assisted in raising her grandson Rick. She always would have cookies and candy around for the kids, and she had a closet full of costumes that was the kids favorite place to play. She would bake cinnamon rolls both big and small with them, and try to pass on some of her baking knowledge (though we still aren't sure who exactly got all of that). She would make sugar egg houses and blown eggs at Easter, novelty cakes for birthdays and pies and other delectables during the other holidays. She could cook for an army at the drop of a hat and have a full spread on the table for them within a few hours, even if she had to butcher her own chicken! Pauline was the ultimate pioneer woman, mountain woman, wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother and friend to all. She loved God and all that he had to give to her, her only question sometimes was why he didn't take her earlier. Apparently God wasn't ready for her yet, as she was still an angel on earth all of those years. She is now an angel in heaven with her husband, child and brothers and sisters, and we can only think that God now has greater plans for her.  Pauline died January 9, 2012.