Barbara J. Godby

Barbara June Godby passed away on June 20, 2019 in Newark, Delaware. She was 86. She was preceded in death by her husband Carl Robert Godby, her brother, Donald Luther Wiseman, her sister, Katherine, and her stepbrother, Dennis Wilburn. She is survived by her three children: Terry, of Arlington, Virginia; Jean, of Columbus, Ohio; and Jim, of Newark, Delaware.

Barbara was born on September 29, 1932, in Marting, an unincorporated town on Mount Olive, near Smithers, West Virginia. Her father, Luther Wiseman, was a World War I veteran. Her mother, Virginia Clonch, was the descendant of a family that had lived on Mount Olive since the early 1800s. Her great-grandfather, Alexander Clonch, served in the Civil War in the Union Army. After Barbara’s father lost his life in a coal mining accident in 1946, her mother moved the family to Oak Hill, West Virginia. There she met Carl, and in 1950 they were married. The same year Carl joined the U.S. Air Force, and he and Barbara moved away from West Virginia. During Carl’s twenty-year career in the Air Force, the family lived in Virginia, Newfoundland, Texas, Germany, and Illinois. They moved to Delaware in 1968 when he was sent to Vietnam. He retired at Dover Air Force Base in 1970 and began his second career at DuPont. They lived in Devon Place for 47 years. In 2018, Barbara moved to Brookdale (now Paramount) Senior Living in Newark, DE, where she died in the company of her children and Paramount’s loving and caring staff. Multiple specialists from Compassionate Care Hospice were also on hand to comfort Barbara and provide spiritual support to the family.

Barbara worked for 28 years as a bookkeeper in Mitchell’s Department Store. In her free time, she created a beautiful and welcoming home. She was an avid gardener, and the daffodils that edge the woods around their home continue to put on a spectacular spring show.  She and Carl also enjoyed visiting their relatives and attending the annual family reunions on both sides of the family. They enjoyed their many road trips to Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, and California. Barbara and Carl passed their love of travel to their children, who have crisscrossed the United States and have visited every continent except Antarctica, often because their interesting careers took them there.

Barbara lived an incredible American life. As a young girl from a small town growing up in a house that had neither running water nor electricity, she could only have imagined that she would get to see Paris, Berlin, Venice and most of the states, and that she would live in her dream house for almost 50 years.  She was an optimist and a realist possessed of uncommon common sense.  She was energetic and funny. She had a million-watt smile. We’ll miss being with her and talking to her.  We’ll miss the person who was always on our side and who showed us how to find our way in the world as only a great mother can do.

 A visitation for family and friends will be held from 11:30 am until 12:30 pm on Friday, July 5, 2019, at Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 121 West Park Place, Newark, DE, where a memorial service will begin at 12:30 pm.  Interment will follow in Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 2465 Chesapeake City Road, Bear, DE.

To view the obituary for Carl, please visit the attached link https://www.highlawnfuneralhomechapel.com/book-of-memories/3768821/Godby-Carl/index.php