Paulina (Polly) Anthonette Holbrook Adams, 96, of Tijuana, Mexico (formerly Wellman, Iowa and Memphis, Tennessee) passed away peacefully on January 3, 2020 with her son, Robert Adams, and daughter-in-law, Linda Adams by her side. 

Born in South Windham, Vermont August 30, 1923, Polly is a Northern having grown up in Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  Her travels took her to Memphis, TN where she lived for many years, then to Wellman, IA and finally Tijuana, Mexico

Polly graduated from St. Joseph School of Nursing in Nashua, NH (Class of 1943) and from Memphis State University with her RN, Bachelor of Science in Nursing in Memphis, TN (Class of 1968).  She practiced Nursing for 65 years in many roles - Head Nurse, Lead Nurse, Surgical Nurse, Pediatric Nurse, Nurse Educator, Private Duty Nurse (to Elvis Presley a couple of times), Clinical Nurse, Travel Nurse, Mission Nurse, Private Practice Nurse, Director of Nursing and Charge Nurse but her favorite role was tending to her three children whom she adored and sacrificed for.

Polly was known for her love and compassion of others, and her contagious smile and laughter. 

The most important thing to Polly was for her children to be in church every Sunday morning/evening and Wednesday evening.  Her number one desire was for her children to know the Lord.

Polly was an active member for 23 years of Briarcrest Baptist Church (formerly East Park Baptist Church) in Memphis, TN as well as her most recent home church, Upper Deer Creek in Wellman, IA for 25 years.

THE NEWS — NEWPORT, R.I., MONDAY, JULY 1, 1957

FINDS RELATIVES AFTER 30 YEARS — Mrs. Lloyd J. Adams, a wife, of 102-D Niagara St., The Anchorage, smiles happily after locating her brothers and sisters. With her are Mrs. Raymond K. Wheeler, left, and Mrs. Wheeler’s daughter, Mrs. Joseph W. Driscoll, both of King, N.H.
(Daily News Photo)

30 Years And 17 Families Later

She Finally Finds Own Relatives

By TALLY SWEAT

Mrs. Paulina Adams of 102-D Niagara St., The Anchorage, who lived with 17 different families as a girl, has found her own sisters and brothers.

Mrs. Adams’ life story reads like a fantastic and overplayed soap opera or an old-time movie ...

As a child she was left by her widowed mother in the care of another family while the mother [searched for work?] in another town. The family "left town in the middle of the night, carrying [?] into another state." Mrs. Adams says. She remembers [?] being a very small child at the time.

When her mother went back to get her, the people had left no trace of where she might be. The mother never separated her other children, three girls and a boy.

Mrs. Adams says her family has since told her that her mother often had wanted to find her, but was afraid that if she went through official channels the people who had taken the child would be charged with kidnapping, with the death penalty.

When Mrs. Adams was 18 she asked the people who had [?] and they [?] her the name of her grandfather, whom she says was a prominent New Englander. She had no way of finding him then and no idea where he lived or if he still was living.

One day, her husband, Chief Quartermaster Lloyd J. Adams, who is in Boston with nothing much to do, so he began checking old family trees and found Mrs. Adams' family record. They later [?] and this led to the discovery of her brothers and sisters.

“The one big thing I had always hoped for was to be able to talk to my mother,” but this desire was not fulfilled as Mrs. Adams’ mother died three years ago.

“No Record Of Age”

“They told me I was adopted during my early childhood, but when I went to apply for a work certificate at the age of 13, the state could not find a birth certificate under the name Paulina Lambert,” she said.

When they found the certificate under her real name, Paulina Fredericks, she then had her name officially changed to Lambert because “everything I had ever signed would have been invalid.”

The people who had taken her were very poor. Mrs. Adams says so from the time she was five or six, she lived with different families.

The mother of the 17th family with which she lived was in town to visit the other day. Mrs. Adams visits with them often. The mother is Mrs. Raymond Wheeler of King, N.H. Mrs. Adams went to live with the Wheelers, who had six children of their own, when she was in high school.

“Mom Wheeler has spoiled me probably more than she has her own children,” Mrs. Adams says. "And I call their home my home."

Mrs. Wheeler says, ‘There is always room for one more and Polly is always welcome at our home.’”

Mrs. Adams worked during her high school years in a shoe shop and saved money to buy her tuition in nursing school. Mrs. Wheeler's daughter, now Mrs. Beatrice Harris, wife of the mayor of Aurora, Ohio, worked in the same shop.

Another daughter, Mrs. Caroline Driscoll, also of King, came with Mrs. Wheeler to visit Mrs. Adams.

Plan More Reunions

When they were there, her real sister, Mrs. Robert Davis of Center, N.J., called. Mrs. Davis said she and her brother and sisters were overjoyed to find their long-lost sister. Mrs. Adams has visited with them since they were “found” several months ago.

“When I stepped off the train my sister [?] me, she says "We look very much alike and they say I resemble my mother. It was as if I had never been away.”

“That was a wonderful day for her,” she remembers, and her son, Lloyd Jr. (Skipper) said his newly found uncle "I've never seen my mother cry so much."

But they were tears of joy for Mrs. Adams and she is many more happy reunions.

Her two other sisters are Mrs. Walter Sobodin of Uniondale/Urbondale?, L I.???; and Mrs. Kelso/e? Lions of Belmont, N.J.; Her brother is Paul Fredericks of New York City.

• Red Hat Ladies outings

• shopping trips to Crowded Closet

• filling a squirt gun with hotsauce and squirting at a dog's butt to keep it from coming around her house

• always telling the great grandchildren "you're the best little girl/boy in the whole wide..." and they were supposed to say "world!" (something like that?) they called her GramGram