Matilda Gulledge Paul

WADESBORO  - On Wednesday, January 25, 2023, Mrs. Matilda Gulledge Paul, 82, passed away peacefully at her home  in Wadesboro.

Funeral services will be 11:00 AM, Monday, January 30, 2023 in the Chapel of Leavitt Funeral Home with Rev. Teddy Lawson officiating. Entombment will be private at Anson Memorial Park.

The family will greet friends following the service.

Matilda was born September 1, 1940 in Anson County, NC and was a daughter of the late Joseph Francis Gulledge and the late Vera Beatrice Tarlton Gulledge. She was a graduate of Lilesville High School and along with her mother, attended beauty school to assist her in opening a beauty shop.

It was while she was working at Wood's Dime Store in Wadesboro that she met Doris McLendon, the owner and operator of Anson Flower Shop. Doris offered Matilda a job and her career in floral design began. She worked for many years at Anson Flower Shop and a few years after retiring she owned and operated Cottage Florist in Lilesville.

Cottage Florist in Lilesville was established in the log home, where she grew up in Lilesville and she named it Cottage Florist becasue she referred to the log home as a cottage when she was a child.

Matilda was a long time member of First Baptist Church where she attended faithfully until declining health.

Those left to cherish her memory, are her children, Doug Paul and wife, Donna of Wadesboro and Tonjua Chapman and husband, Michael of Lilesville; her grandchildren, Miranda Velez and husband, Alex and Brandon Paul and wife, Jessica all of Wadesboro,, Julianna Chapman of Burlington and Anneliese Chapman of Lilesville; her great-granddaughter, Elizabeth; her brothers-in-law, Billy Garris of Winston-Salem, Wayne Lassiter of Asheville and Bobby Paul of Lilesville;  special family friend, Billy Baker of Wadesboro and her nieces and nephews and their families.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Phillip Paul and her sisters and brother, Derenda Garris, Norma Lassiter, Diane Moore and Joe Gulledge, Jr.

 In lieu of flowers, the family would like donations to be sent to an organization that has followed the family as the first genetic-link AML Leukemia and has worked to perfect stem-cell donation as a treatment. Please send any donations to Johns Hopkins University, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Weinberg Building, Room 1355, 401 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231-1146.

The arrangements are in care of Leavitt Funeral Home and online condolences may be made at www.leavittfh.com