Dorothy E. Goodman, 89, of 183 Grace Village Drive, Winona Lake, died at 4:20 a.m. March 8, 2009, in Grace Village Health Care, Winona Lake.
She was born June 12, 1919, in LaVerne, Calif., to George and Margaret Ward Hay. On June 16, 1944, in LaVerne, she married Marvin L. Goodman, who survives.
Wanting to serve as a missionary, she completed nurses training in Pasadena, Calif., and attended Grace Seminary and earned a Christian Education Diploma.
After a risky Pacific Ocean crossing during World War II, she and her husband took a river boat up the Congo and Ubanqui rivers to the Central African Republic, where they would serve for 40 years. As a nurse, she dealt with all sorts of tropical diseases, offering blankets to expectant mothers if they would come to the medical center to have their baby, thus preventing complications from unattended births. In the absence of a doctor, she sometimes was obliged to perform surgeries to save the mothers' lives. She also taught both women and children to read and understand the scriptures.
Life was not easy in the CAR in those days. She cooked on a wood stove, swept a sun-baked clay floor in a mud block house under a grass roof. Yet, she succeeded in making it into a home for her husband and four children.
Upon retirement in 1986, she and her husband lived in Winona Lake, where she was active in women's and children's ministries at Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church. She also operated a Good News club from her home on the hill overlooking Billy Sunday Tabernacle. In her final years, she struggled with the debilitating effects of Parkinson's, and while her family misses her greatly, they rest in their faith that she has been ushered into the presence of her Savior.
Also surviving are two sons, David (and spouse Nancy), Northbrook, Ill., and Paul (and spouse Marlene), Houston, Texas; a daughter, Anne (and spouse Robert) Hoy, Camp Verde, Ariz.; 11 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and a son-in-law, John Zielasko. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Suzan Zielasko, the youngest of the four children, who succumbed to cancer in October 2003, in her home town of Winona Lake.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church with Pastor Bruce Barlow officiating. A graveside service will be at Oakwood Cemetery, Warsaw.
Calling is from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Redpath-Fruth Funeral Home, Warsaw, and one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church.
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Memorials to Grace Brethren International Mission for the Dorothy Goodman Memorial Fund.
Condolences may be sent to www.redpathfruthfuneralhome.com
