Joan Elizabeth Goodwin

Joan E. Goodwin departed this world ready for her next adventure on February 5, 2024. Born November 4, 1931 into a large family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Frederick and Katharine Snyder Healy, Joan’s mother steadfastly believed the doctor had erred and Joan was actually born on the 5th. Perhaps it was this belief that initially sparked Joan’s periodic rebellious spirit.

Joan was lovingly attended to as a child by her beloved Aunt Anna and Uncle Doc. She shared many a youthful shenanigan with her dear friend Nancy Decorsey. Together they danced after school on the original American Bandstand.

Joan was an early adopter of the exercise, health and wellness lifestyle. Yoga was a life-long passion. She often marched to her own tune, especially when some of her progressive views were neither popular nor shared by those in her presence nor the traditional institution in which she was raised. She was never one to be bullied into silence.

After meeting her future husband, Walter E. Goodwin, at the Veteran’s Administration hospital where she was a volunteer, they married in 1955 and had three children. Together, Joan and Walter raised their young family in Philadelphia before moving to Fairfax County, Virginia. Joan and Walter were life-long vacationers on the south Jersey shore. Retired at the tender age of 50, they spent decades in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, where, if one was lucky, Joan could be glimpsed zipping past on her moped as she traveled across the island.

Embracing the snow-bird lifestyle for years, they permanently moved to Florida in the late 1990s. Joan traded in her moped helmet for numerous volunteer endeavors with the American Red Cross, RSVP, and the American Cancer Society. An avid knitter, Joan joined several churches just so she could join their knitting groups. She especially enjoyed making many blankets for children aging out of the foster care system and baby blankets for low income families.

After Walter’s death, Joan moved to back to Virginia and spent her final years at The Fairfax in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where she made many friends and enjoyed the many exercise classes and knitting group.

Joan will be dearly missed by her many friends in Florida, Virginia, and elsewhere. She is survived by her children, Deborah Alexander, Walter Goodwin, and Anne Goodwin (William Nelson), and her four grandchildren, Hope Alexander, Kristin Cuesta (Ross), AshbyRose Nelson (Walter Yavorski), and Noah Nelson, and by a sister and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery.