“Now grandma is part of the moon and the stars and the sun”. So announced Cecilia, age 3, as she tried to understand death and the afterlife and her great-grandmother’s leaving us. Elizabeth Ann Veronica Miley Goodman, (Betty) aged 85, passed away Feb.
3rd, 2019 in her own bed, in her own Muskegon area Glenside neighborhood home where she’d lived with her husband, Don, since 1967. Born Dec. 19, 1933 in Chicago to William and Mary Miley (nee Ryan), Betty, a lifelong Catholic, attended the Academy of Our Lady.
On August 8, 1953 she married an army corporal, Donald Goodman, and they entered the first of 65 years of marriage. They moved to Muskegon in 1956 and were delighted by the place. With Don, Betty raised four boys who eventually became (1) a designer and builder of theater sets at two colleges [Brian]; (2) a freelance musician who became a music teacher at a private school in New York, [Alan]; (3) an Emergency Room nurse [Tom]; and (4) a drug-and-alcohol counselor in Colorado [Mark].
A dedicated baseball fan herself, Betty turned all four boys into stats-quoting addicts. Bright, happy, and giving, Betty volunteered at the Red Cross for forty years, during which time she also donated 10 gallons of her blood. She enjoyed working for Goodfellow’s at Christmastime as well.
She was employed as a lunch-lady at Bunker School for many years and loved-and-was-loved-by the junior- high kids. Although terrified of crossing open water, Betty bravely walked the Mackinac Bridge one Labor Day. During overseas trips she loved the sidewalk cafes in Paris, the mountains in Switzerland and Spain, but bought a Spanish folding fan to cover he eyes during the gorier parts of the bullfights in Madrid; she was awakened by lions roaring outside her tent while on safari in Zimbabwe and was thrilled by seeing elephants and giraffes.
She adored the lace curtains and vibrantly painted doors in Ireland, (since she was 85% Irish,) enjoyed spring trips to Florida, but most of all, loved her Muskegon home. Betty loved flowers and filled the house and yards and window boxes with their bright colors. Betty leaves behind a husband, four sons, five loving daughters-in-law; seven grandchildren, and two great-grand-children, one of whom (3 year old Cecilia) was able to send her to the moon.
A religious service will be held in the chapel at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church at a later date when the weather would be more to her liking. Betty was never fond of winter. No flowers please.
Donations to the Red Cross or Goodfellows. Arrangements by The Walburn Chapel, 1547 W. Sherman Blvd. , (231) 759-8565.
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