Paula Foray

Paula Foray (née Ginsburg) born November 27, 1938, passed away at the age of 85 on October 8, 2024, after having a massive stroke on October 5, 2024. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, her family moved to Los Angeles in 1943 where she lived until 2023. In October of 2023, she moved to Tucson, Arizona to live close to her daughter and family. She is predeceased by her father, Leonard Ginsburg, and her mother, Esther Ginsburg (née Schuster). She is survived by her brothers, Arn Ginsburg (living in China) and Skip Ginsburg (living in Santa Rosa, California), her daughter, Diane Foray, son-in-law, Jeff Vollin, and granddaughters, Marina and Larissa Vollin.

Paula was fiercely independent from an early age, living outside her family home while she finished high school. She was drawn to Venice and Santa Monica beaches where she forged many relationships, including with Walter Foray, who she was briefly married to, and had Diane with. As a single mother, she worked very hard both in and out of the home, later enabling Diane to pursue her undergraduate degree at UCLA and study abroad. Paula had a 40-year career with the County of Los Angeles, providing clerical services to the Department of Social Services, a drug-rehabilitation clinic, and the Probation Department. She had direct contact with the clients of the clinic and enjoyed this work above the rest. She received several commendations from her supervisors over the years, including the time she prevented a fight from erupting in the waiting room of the Probation Department by using her commanding voice to sharply instruct the angry parties to separate themselves and refrain from violence.

Amongst the brightest highlights of her life was her trip to Israel in 1978. She felt so deeply akin to the country and its people that she planned to move to Israel after Diane finished high school. In preparation for the move, she attended evening Hebrew classes at Santa Monica City College which she found to be a formidable but rewarding challenge. However, being of a practical nature and dissuaded by her family, she ultimately didn’t pursue her dream of living in Israel but did return to visit the country with a friend in 1982, and in 1988, when she volunteered to help in the Israeli army, repairing tank equipment.

Paula had a big, beautiful smile, a generous nature, and an abundance of enthusiasm for the things she enjoyed. In her retirement, she became devoted to her aqua-aerobics classes, finding new energy and new friends in the pool. She also found the joys of shopping from the comfort of her home and amassed an impressive collection of jewelry, clothing and purses. Throughout her lifetime, she maintained her appearance with coordinated outfits complete with matching accessories. This habit continued even when she transitioned to living in a senior residential community in Tucson. Despite her diminished abilities to see, hear and experience the pleasures she had enjoyed, life was still precious to her, and she held onto it until, as she said would happen, “it was her time.”