Dorothy Goudy

Published 12:00 am Friday, May 28, 2010

Dorothy E. Goudy, 97, of Austin, died at Sunrise Cottages on Friday, May 21, 2010.
Dorothy was born on Dec. 5, 1912 in Cannon Falls, Minn. to Owen and Edna (Peterson) Doely. Dorothy seemed to have had a charmed childhood. Silver and pressed linens and finely set tables were an everyday event. Families sat down for meals together each day. She graduated from Cannon Falls High School just when the Depression began. San Francisco called to her and she found work as a dental assistant and friendships that sustained and nurtured her the rest of her life. Returning to Minnesota she married Nathaniel Goudy on Aug. 18, 1939. They moved first to Lyle and then to Austin where Nat was a highly respected teacher and coach. They welcomed a son, James, in 1948 and then a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1951.
Nat died suddenly from an aneurism of the aorta in 1956 leaving Dorothy to raise her two beautiful children with the help of her parents, family, and friends.
She remained in the home she and Nat purchased until the last year of her life. Those who visited her were always treated with the same elegant and generous hospitality she learned in her youth. Her feisty, honest, wonder-filled love of nature and art and civility will live on in all those who knew and then loved her.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her husband, Nathaniel Goudy; her parents, Owen and Edna; brother, Owen.
Dorothy is survived by her son: James Goudy of Austin; daughter, Elizabeth (Richard) Alwes of Millville, Minn.; grandchildren, Thea Marie (Brandon) Day, Megan Elizabeth (Scott) Schmitz; great-grandchild, Emilou Elizabeth Schmitz; nieces, Mary (Peter) Deneen, Martha (Jerry) Winter, Shirley (Bill) Stublefield; nephew, David (Cheryl) Doely. 
Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 29, 2010, at First Congregational Church in Austin, with the Rev. Elizabeth H. Endicott and the Rev. David Doely officiating and on May 30, 2010, at First Congregational Church in Cannon Falls, Minn., with the Rev. Barbara Martin officiating. Interment will be at Cannon Falls Cemetery at a later date. Visitation will be at First Congregational Church for one hour before the service on Saturday.
Clasen-Jordan Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Memorials are preferred to Children’s Home Society of Minnesota, 1605 Eustis Street St. Paul , MN 55108.