Constance "Connie" Ann Pouls

Constance Ann (Connie) Pouls died peacefully at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque on Wednesday, July 10, 2019, having just celebrated her 81st birthday. Connie was born in Albuquerque on July 3, 1938 to parents Costandino ‘Gus’ Pouls and Olga Laskar Pouls. She graduated from Highland High School and attended the University of New Mexico. As a young woman, she worked as an administrator for AAA insurance. She loved to travel, visiting many cities and Greek communities in the United States with her mother (an active member of the Daughters of Penelope and the Daughters of the Nile), and travelling through Europe after her mother’s death. The memories of those distant places and the people she met there delighted her. For most of her adult life she worked in the restaurant business, managing Khanssons (the gourmet Chinese restaurant in Corrales that she owned with her brother Basil and his wife Olga), and then supervising the kitchen at The Quarters in Albuquerque. She was a natural organizer with amazing social skills, energy, and a charismatic personality, and she flourished in the hectic realm of the restaurant industry.

Connie loved people. It seemed that wherever she went, she met someone she knew. Her joy in living, optimism, and inextinguishable fascination with the eccentricities and foibles of humankind made her welcome at any social occasion. Although she never married or had children of her own, she was like a second mother to her nephew and niece and that kindness extended to many young people in her community. She also loved animals. Her menagerie included a series of stray cats and a rescued Golden Retriever named Daisy. She had a big heart and a wonderful, wry sense of humor. Connie was a generous and loyal friend, always placing more importance on her relationships with loved ones than on material possessions. She was a proud Greek-American, a lifelong member of St. George Greek Orthodox Church, and an active member of the charitable Philoptochos Society, visiting the sick and elderly members of the community, working to support the Greek Festival, and raising money for the church. In her later years, she studied the art of painting Orthodox icons and became an accomplished iconographer.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew her, most especially by her family, including her sister-in-law, Olga; her brother’s children, Mary Ann and Charles and Charles’ wife Lisa; and her great-nephew, Otto. We are grateful for her example of a life well-lived.

Friends may visit Thursday, July 18, 2019, 4:00-6:00 p.m., followed by a Trisagion at 6:00 p.m. at FRENCH – Wyoming. Services will be held Friday, July 19, 2019, 10:00 a.m., at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 308 High St. SE. Interment will follow at Fairview Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, donations may be made in Connie’s memory to the SPCA, the Humane Society, or St. George Greek Orthodox Church.