Pauline Fain Moore, lifelong resident of Lexington, KY, passed away peacefully May. 22, 2022, while being cared for temporarily in Leesburg, VA, by daughters Paulette Moore Towner and Jennifer Moore.

Pauline was born Friday, Feb. 13, 1925, to Margaret Alice Larkin Fain and Everett Conn Fain in the same little house her sister had been born in 21 months earlier. Both girls were to later build their homes on that farm, living most of their adult lives on either side of their mother and father’s home built at the front of the farm in 1959. [CE1] These sisters had a special bond beyond the normal bond of siblings. It was a great tragedy for Pauline to lose Dorothy unexpectedly in 2000 as they had many travels and adventures planned for the future together. They were so in sync that they often picked out the same furniture, clothing, and clothes for their children, a tendency which could be a little embarrassing, as when they showed up at church on Easter to discover that they had chosen the same dresses for their girls. They never seemed to disagree on anything, and Pauline was Dorothy’s ear and support and vice versa throughout their lives.

Much of Pauline’s childhood was marked by the depression with hard work on the farm. While her father, a union pipefitter, traveled for work in his little red Chevrolet pickup, her mother and the two girls did all but the heaviest farm work. Even as very young children, the girls would take turns, with one daughter going with her mother to work in the fields while the other stayed at the house to cook a big dinner for family and farm hands. It was no wonder they both turned out to be such great cooks since their mother was legendary and taught them both from such a young age. Their holiday dinners were truly epic.

Pauline attended Little Picadome and graduated from Lafayette High School in 1943. She and her sister were excellent students, and Pauline was the fastest typist of all the students her senior year at Lafayette which prompted her typing teacher to search and find an offer of work with the Federal Government in Washington, DC. Her father said he didn’t want her up there with “that bunch” so she did not accept the offer and instead took a position at a local bank as one of only two bookkeepers. Later she worked for Crane Distributing, owned by T.O. Campbell, who became a great advocate along with his head bookkeeper, Mr. Smith, who took the time to teach her bookkeeping skills that served her well for the rest of career, allowing her to keep books for her husband’s business until retirement and later as a bookkeeper for Henry Cord’s CPA firm for years. Henry became another wonderful mentor and friend enhancing her life greatly until his death.

Pauline often said how lucky she was to have been unattached when James L. Moore returned from his Marine Corp Service in World War II. They were introduced by her friend at the bank and later married on her lucky day of Friday the 13th, 1949. He was someone she could always count on as he could count on her, and they had an enduring love until his death in 2011 after a brief illness. In his last months of life, he was still trying to put her needs before his own and told her how he could never have found anyone more suited to him to spend life with.

She made sure her three girls had a childhood filled with happiness, joy, peace, including wonderful experiences and travels, possibly because she had endured such hardships as a child of the depression or possibly because she was just the most generous, kind, and loving person. She knew how to manage her money and create a beautiful home wherever she lived. She was the greatest example of how to be a wonderful wife and mother her girls could have ever had to follow. Her love of Christmas and making Christmas something extraordinary for her family was quite wonderful.

Pauline began a lifelong spiritual practice as a small child at the Short Street Evangelical Church which was a church filled with many earthbound “angels.” As a tiny girl her precious mixed terrier, Buster, sat patiently on the bottom step of the front porch at attention for her many sermons, as she determined she would be a preacher when she was old enough. She was a small girl who loved the piano and her parents found a way to purchase one for her at the height of the depression but could only afford lessons for about six months when she was six years old. She used those lessons well and never stopped playing which was her great joy and hobby throughout her long life. She was playing piano daily until her health declined.

She attended the Short Street Church until the church divided into North Lexington Church and South Lexington Stonewall Wesleyan Methodist Church on Clays Mill Rd., which was built when Stonewall subdivision was first filling with families. She supported that church for the rest of her life in any way she could including as treasurer for years.

She is predeceased by her parents, Everett in 1962, Margaret in 1996, beloved sister Dorothy in 2000, and husband James in 2011. Pauline is survived by her three children: Carolyn S. Erley and partner, Gregory Robinson, Cynthiana, KY and Los Angeles, CA; Paulette M. Towner, Leesburg, VA; Jennifer Moore and Ronald Joseph Fortunato, NYC. Three grandchildren survive her: James Michael Erley (Caroline), Georgetown, KY; Mieka (Sam); and Paris Larkin Towner, Leesburg, VA. Surviving great-grandchildren are Lee Pham, Frankfort, KY; Madeline Grace Erley, Lexington, KY; and Raphael.

A funeral service will be held Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at 1 p.m. at Kerr Brothers Funeral home, Harrodsburg Rd., preceded by visitation on Tuesday evening, from 5 to 8 p.m. and the day of the funeral from 11 a.m. Burial service will be at Blue Grass Memorial Gardens Mausoleum, 4915 Harrodsburg Rd., Nicholasville, KY, following the funeral. The family would like to thank Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital for their care and direction after her last hospitalization