{"id":50379,"date":"2026-02-20T11:12:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=50379"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:12:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:12:45","slug":"paula-k-gutierrez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/paula-k-gutierrez\/","title":{"rendered":"Paula K. Gutierrez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"318\" height=\"444\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Paula-Gutierrez-obit.jpeg?fit=318%2C444&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50380\" style=\"width:250px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">PAULDING, OH:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Paula K. Gutierrez<\/strong>, age 72, passed away on Thursday, February 19, 2026 at her home, surrounded by her family.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Paula was born on May 22, 1953 in Decatur, IN to the late Kenneth and Catherine &#8220;Kate&#8221; (Fisher) Birch. On November 22, 1975, she married John E. Gutierrez, who preceded her in death on May 19, 2025. Paula worked as a deli manager for Chief Supermarket in Paulding for 25 years, before she retired in 2018. She was a member of Divine Mercy Catholic Parish in Paulding and a member of the Paulding Eagles Aerie 2405 Ladies Auxiliary. She loved going on trips and getaways, and enjoyed going to casinos. More than anything, she loved her grandchildren.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Paula will be lovingly missed by her daughters: Christy (Kevin) Timbrook, Antwerp, OH; Julie (Ron) Wirts, Paulding, OH; stepmother, Betty Birch, Decatur, IN; brothers: Craig Birch, Pleasant Mills, IN; Jeff Birch, Maples, IN; sisters: Nancy (David) Luginbill, Monroe, IN; Marnie (Steve) Shaffer, Decatur, IN; her five beloved grandchildren: Skylr (Josh), Kendall, Kalli, RJ, and Rya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Along with her parents and husband, Paula was preceded in death by her brother, Kenneth E. Birch; sisters, Pamela Birch and Patsy Birch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">A celebration of Paula&#8217;s life will be held at 1:00 PM on Sunday, March 1, 2026 at the Paulding Eagles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Online condolences may be shared at www.denherderfh.com.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PAULDING, OH: Paula K. Gutierrez, age 72, passed away on Thursday, February 19, 2026 at her home, surrounded by her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28157,28154,28155,28158,21805,3417,28159,25783,28156,28153,28161,28160,28152,9507],"class_list":["post-50379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits","tag-betty-birch","tag-catherine-kate-fisher-birch","tag-christy-timbrook","tag-craig-birch","tag-decatur-indiana","tag-den-herder-funeral-home","tag-jeff-birch","tag-john-e-gutierrez","tag-julie-wirts","tag-kenneth-birch","tag-marnie-shaffer","tag-nancy-luginbill","tag-paula-k-gutierrez","tag-paulding-ohio"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Paula-Gutierrez-obit.jpeg?fit=318%2C444&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-d6z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 22:17:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50381,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50379\/revisions\/50381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}