ESTELLE MARIE CULOTTA PAETZ

KELLER, TEXAS - Estelle Marie Culotta Paetz, age 100, of Keller, Texas was called home by the Lord on Sunday, December 12, 2021, and is now at peace forever.  Funeral services will be held 5:00 p.m. Friday, December 17, 2021 at St Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas.  Additional mass at St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Galveston, Texas at 1 p.m. Saturday, December 18.  The burial service will follow the mass at Calvary Cemetery in Galveston, Texas.

Estelle Marie was born July 20, 1921 in Galveston, Texas to Vincent Culotta and Laura Mary Russo Culotta.  She lived in Galveston for 83.5 years and was a graduate of Ursuline Academy.  She received a B.A. from Ursuline College in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1938.  She taught in public and private grade schools, mostly the primary grades for forty years in Galveston.  She also taught at the Shiner's Burn Institute and tutored many children during the summer over the years.  She married September 10, 1947 to Charles Paetz and had six children.

Besides teaching, she was president of Ursuline Alumni and held offices in the DCCW and St. Monica, household of St. Martha.  For many years, she served on a volunteer basis at St. Mary's Hospital in Galveston, the altar guild of St. Mary's Cathedral, the Catholic Daughters, and was a lay Carmelite.  She was a life member of the PTA at San Jacinto Elementary.

Estelle Marie is survived by her children:  Marianne Stallings of Greenville, Texas; Charles Joseph Paetz of Bainbridge, Pennsylvania; Theresa Taylor of Greenville, Texas; R. Vincent Paetz of Bethesda, Maryland; and Margaret Mary Paetz of Keller, Texas.  She had sixteen grandchildren, twenty-eight great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Vincent and Laura Culotta, her brother, Charles Culotta, her husband of sixty-six years, Charles John Paetz, and oldest son, Michael Christopher Paetz.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions and honorariums may be made to: St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Galveston, Texas or Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana.