Doris Lillian Goodrich

Doris Lillian Goodrich died peacefully on November 3, 2022, at the age of 99.

Born on May 2, 1923, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Doris was the daughter Alphonse and Irene Archambault (later LaMothe). She is survived by her daughters, Nancy Augustyn Coppola of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Janet Augustyn Sansone of Kernersville, North Carolina. Her son, Neal Augustyn, of New Hampshire, predeceased her. She was grandmother to Allison Coppola, Angelina Sansone, Stephen Coppola, Joseph Sansone and Mollie Sansone Sjoblom. Doris was also survived by three great grandchildren, Jaxon Sansone, Austin Sansone, and Lucy Fetterolf, her niece, Joyce McEvoy, and her nephew Kenneth Murty.

Doris is predeceased by her sister, Yvette Murty, of Dayton, Ohio, and Alexander Augustyn, her first husband of Stamford, Connecticut. Her second husband, Howard Goodrich, of Fenton, Michigan, also predeceased her.

Doris moved from Massachusetts to Stamford, Connecticut as a teen-ager. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1940, she worked in Stamford at AirRadio, Inc. as a stenographer and switchboard operator. In 1943, after the United States had entered World War II, she enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. (It wasn’t until 1948, with the passage of the Armed Services Integration Act, that the Women’s Reserve component ceased to exist and females in the Corps were known as women marines.) She attended boot camp at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, and was posted to Headquarters Marine Corps in Arlington, Virginia where she was assigned to clerical duties in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Navy was reluctant to send women overseas during WWII until passage of federal legislation in 1944 that allowed WAVES and Women Reservists to be stationed in Hawaii or Alaska. Doris volunteered and, after meeting the Marine Corps’ strict criteria, was one of few Women Reservists selected for overseas duty. After completing six weeks of rugged, pre-embarkation training at MCB San Diego, California, she began a zig-zagging overseas voyage via a troop transport vessel, arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii, 10 days later. Doris was eventually assigned to a communications section as a teletype operator at the Marine Corps base in Pearl Harbor where she served 18 months until her honorable discharge in 1946. She remained in the Reserves until 1953 and was active in the Women Marines Association throughout her lifetime.

After her discharge from active duty, Doris attended Boston University on the G.I. Bill and earned a Legal Secretary associate degree. She returned to Stamford, Connecticut where she worked several years as a legal secretary at Cummings & Lockwood. She married in 1951, raised three children, and eventually returned to Cummings & Lockwood. Doris remarried in 1976, and later moved to Fenton, Michigan, spending many winters with her husband in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Doris was instrumental in forming the Glenbrook Community Center in Stamford. She was an avid bridge player and loved playing all kinds of card games with family and friends. She also enjoyed bowling, shuffleboard, and square dancing.

Doris’ family will celebrate her life in a private gathering.

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