Eleanor Goodman

Eleanor Goodman, age 91, died peacefully on Saturday, September 5, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from New York, she lived in Pompano Beach, Florida for many years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 2013.

In New York, she worked for Selective Service during World War II and married her high school sweetheart, Abraham Venick (d. 1962). In 1964, she married Milton Goodman (d. 2006) and created a lively, blended family of six children. She worked for New York State in various secretarial capacities until her retirement; her favorite post was at Jones Beach.

Ellie (she was Ellie to everyone) made and kept life-long friends, her closest ones since fourth grade. In fact, because of her warmth and openness, she made friends wherever she went. Ellie was a lifelong learner. She went to the theatre, the opera, symphony, lectures, museums, and enjoyed summer visits to the Chautauqua Institution. She also enjoyed extremely hot coffee, CBS Sunday Morning, the Sunday Times crossword puzzles, bialys, cold glasses of beer, A. J. Levine, lo mein, rack of lamb, kippers, mussels, exercise classes, and lately, Hattie B’s fried chicken.

For years, she regularly travelled to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee, visiting her children and grandchildren. She was the devoted daughter of Sarah and William Kaplan, loving sister of Arthur Kaplan (Ida) and Ruth Lynn (Harold).

She was loved and will be greatly missed by her family: Alan Goodman, Wendy Tilton (Bob), Janice LoPiccolo (John), Irwin Venick (Jeanne Ballinger), Ken Venick (Sharon Nelson), Larry Venick (Abby Wean); 13 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, and by the hundreds of people whose lives she touched by simply being herself.

Ellie’s most enduring accomplishment was to be, as her classmates at Samuel J. Tilden High School noted, a genuinely nice person.

Burial services for Mrs. Goodman will be held in at Forest Lawn Funeral Home in Pompano Beach, Florida.

A Memorial service will be conducted in Nashville at Park Manor, October 4, 2015 at 2 p.m.

Contributions may be made to Abe's Garden at Park Manor, 115 Woodmont Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37205.