Mildred Belle Goodman

GRAND RAPIDS - Mildred “Millie” Belle Goodman, 102, died peacefully at Clark Retirement Community, Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 16, 2016 after experiencing a stroke. Mildred was born on March 16, 1913 in Branch County, Michigan to the late Lewis and Lillian (Kerns) Moore and grew up on a farm near Quincy. She married Lawrence “Larry” Goodman during the Great Depression. They moved to Florida for a short time and then came back to Michigan where they raised two sons as the family moved to a number of small towns in Southern Michigan. She and Lawrence moved to Traverse City in 1957, after many years of traveling and vacationing “up north”. Mildred was very happy in Traverse City, first living in one of the one room schoolhouses on Old Mission Peninsula which she and her family converted to a home. She and Larry lived in a number of different homes and after Larry died she bought a house in town which she personally helped remodel and where she and her mother lived for several years. While in her middle years she went back to school to earn an LPN registration and enjoyed working at the Osteopathic Hospital. She was a member of Archie Junior Women’s Club. She was very active in committees and service projects and had many friends at Central United Methodist Church where she was a member for over fifty years. She enjoyed visits from her many friends and from her children, grand-children, and great-grand-children, often engaging them in puzzle building, dominoes, and scrabble, of which she was a master. Sewing, baking, gardening, canning, and quilt making were supplemented in later years by staying in touch with friends by email. She gave up her car in her 70s saying it was “too much bother”, but she was not afraid to try new things. In her mid 90s she fulfilled a dream of visiting Walt Disney World with her family and long time friend Ruth Kramer (mother of daughter-in-law Bethany). At age 98 she moved to Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids. There she made many new friends and learned to play pool and Wii Bowling. She continued her interests in Scrabble and puzzle-solving and watching Jeopardy. She also enjoyed delivering mail packages to the other residents. Mildred truly enjoyed other people and the feeling was mutual. She was a dear friend to many and she held them up in her prayers. She will be waiting to greet them. She is survived by two sons, Paul (Georgia) Goodman in Ann Arbor, and Charles (Bethany) Goodman in Midland; 6 grandchildren; Timothy (Alice) Goodman in Rivaz, Switzerland, Lisa (Jon) Griffin in East Grand Rapids; Jane (Mark) Garrett in Traverse City, Noel (Rachel) Goodman in Traverse City, Sonya (Donovan) Farr in North Carolina, Nick (Abby) Goodman in Midland; and 9 great-grandchildren, Jeanne, Silas, Andrew, Emma, Margret, Walter, Elijah, Hannah, and Leia; a brother Carl Moore, a nephew Henry (Billee) Moore and a niece Susan (Tom) Sickman in Texas. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; older brother Lynn; niece Cindy, and sister-in-law Sue. A memorial services will be held on Feb. 27, 2016 at 2 p.m. at the Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids. Pastor Mary Loring will officiant. A second memorial service will be held for family and friends on March 12, 2016 at 11 a.m.at the Central United Methodist Church with a visitation held one hour prior. Pastor Dale Ostema will be the officiant. Please share your thoughts and memories with Mildred’s family by way of her online guestbook at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com. The family is being cared for by the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home and Cremation Services.

Mildred Belle Goodman

March 16, 1913 - February 16, 2016