PAULA CRAIG HERRON

(June 2, 1948 - July 28, 2026)

Paula Craig Herron, nee Craig Paul Herron, passed away on July 28, 2026, at the age of 78, after a short illness. A memorial service for Paula will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at The Church of the Nativity and Holy Comforter, 419 Cedarcroft Road, Baltimore, MD 21212. A repast will follow, with an opportunity to share your memories of Paula. Parking is at 6112 York Road.

Paula is survived by Barbara Morgan Herron, her spouse of 55 years; her brother Jay and his wife April of Interlachen, Florida; and her niece Heather Herron Carter, her husband Jeff, and their daughters Gwendolyn and Calisi, all of St. Augustine, Florida. Paula was predeceased by her parents, Paul and Lois Herron, and her niece Jaycie Herron.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Church of the Nativity and Holy Comforter, (nativitycomforter.org) or Dreams and Visions Church (dreamsandvisionsbaltimore.org).

Craig was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on June 2, 1948. The Herrons were a Navy family, and lived in San Diego, CA; Jacksonville, FL; Panama; Washington, DC; and Alameda, CA, while he was growing up. The family settled in Santa Clara, CA, when Paul retired from the Navy in 1960.

Craig survived a serious case of bulbar polio at the age of three, while living in San Diego.

In Santa Clara, Craig began making movies with his friends using a second-hand 8-millimeter camera.  Their masterpiece was "Sam and the Spies," a middle-school version of a James Bond film, complete with a skateboard chase and some visual effects. He attended Emil Buchner High School, where he lettered in cross-country running.

After graduating from high school in 1966, Craig enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was stationed at Lackland, Kelly and Goodfellow Air Force Bases in Texas for basic and technical school training. He was then posted to the Royal Thai Air Force Base at Nakhon Phanom, where he served with the 6994th Vietnam Security Squadron. It was there that he was exposed to Agent Orange, which had been used to clear the jungle.

Craig's final assignment was to the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, MD. It was there that he met Barbara in December, 1970. After a whirlwind courtship, they were married on May 15, 1971.

After being honorably discharged from the Air Force, Craig embarked on a life of many and varied adventures, with Barbara at his side. He began with a stint as a song writer and lead guitarist in the rock band Feeling. In his spare time he began working with wood.  That led to building an historically accurate diorama of the Bloody Angle at the Battle of Gettysburg, and Crag Castle, a Welsh castle made of hundreds blocks of wood. As Herron Designs, he also made and sold woodcrafts and suede purses at craft shows.

During this time he studied commercial art, art advertising and print production, and earned a certificate from the Professional Institute of Commercial Art in Baltimore. He taught there briefly, then went on to work in package design and technical illustration.

The idea of working for himself again was too appealing, though, and led him into work as a caricature and portrait artist at shows and festivals as far away as Myrtle Beach and Chicago. He was especially popular at the Dundalk Heritage Festival. The same clients turned up year after year to have new drawings done of their growing children. He also taught art classes from time to time at the Jewish Community Center.

New horizons kept on beckoning, and Craig began painting murals and doing faux finish in homes, shopping malls, office buildings and even a hospital. His work appeared in a Baltimore Symphony Show House.

When desktop computers appeared on the scene, Craig jumped in with both feet. He pushed the boundaries of his first Apple Macintosh, and regularly upgraded his hardware and software. His art training was invaluable in developing skills in computer graphics and his true love, animation and visual effects.

His first project, a short film called A Fall from the Clouds, combined live action with an animated Sopwith Camel, and won first prize in the first Red Bull Animation Film Festival. In Freedom Dance, Craig animated drawings by friend Edward Hilbert, which chronicled his escape from Hungary in 1956. The 30-minute film, narrated by Mariska Hargitay, was awarded the Cine Golden Eagle.

Craig worked on a number of local independent films, including The Wickeds with Ron Jeremy, Day of the Gun with Eric Roberts, and Bermuda Triangle: A Love Story. The latter was written and produced by Barbara using footage that Craig shot on cruises to Bermuda, It also included a World War I submarine that Craig modeled and animated. The film was an official selection at the Maryland Female Filmmakers Festival and was shown on Baltimore City cableTV.

The love of travel was one of the constants in Craig's life. He enjoyed trips to Canada, England, Wales, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He learned French as an adult and used it on visits to Paris, Normandy and Brittany. His most exotic trip was a photo safari to Kenya. Closer to home, he and Barbara embarked on a two-month cross-country camping trip in 1976. They lived in the back of a camp shell they had built on a Datsun pick-up truck, and took an aluminum canoe on the roof.

In later years they loved cruising, and visited Bermuda, Canada and New England, the Bahamas and many Caribbean islands. It was on a cruise in 2018 that Craig came out publicly as Paula.

About a year after they were married, Craig told Barbara that he had begun experiencing gender dysphoria as a child. After struggling for years, he finally legally transitioned and became Paula Craig Herron at the age of 70.

She was welcomed as Paula into the Church of the Nativity and Holy Comforter in Baltimore. There she fully participated in the life of the congregation, playing handbells and serving as a delegate to the Maryland Synod Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Her years as Paula were the happiest years of her life. She is missed.