Evelyn L. Goohs, 89, Loved to Sing & Paint

Born in Lorain on June 21, 1924, her brother’s tenth birthday, Evelyn had a life full of highlights and challenges. When she was eight days old, her family survived one of the worst tornadoes ever to hit the Lorain-Sandusky area.

The second of four children of Grover Cleveland Smith and Emilie (Kurecka) Smith, she grew up during the Great Depression. Married in 1943 to a young Navy officer, Christian Goohs, the couple were posted to San Diego, California, where Chris was an interpreter for the German POW camp during WWII. When their first child was born in San Diego, their pediatrician was Dr. Benjamin Spock who later became famous for his book Baby and Child Care.

Evelyn was a talented person. She played percussion in high school and once joined a jazz band (until her mother found out). She was in drama in high school, but singing was her passion. She sang in school and church choirs all of her life – most recently at San Raphael Church in San Diego. She loved to paint, especially watercolors. Unfortunately, all of her art work perished along with her house in the Witch Creek Fire in 2007. Fiercely independent, she lived alone in her rebuilt house in San Diego until declining health and an accidental fall took her life.

She will be fondly remembered by her family and all those who knew her. She is survived by her four daughters Patricia J. Petersen, Janet M. Cherif, Karen S. Maccree, and Christine A. Donaldson and her four sons David M. Goohs, James R. Goohs, Robert J. Goohs, and Charles A. Goohs. Also surviving are two sisters Maxine Dittmer and Jeanne Riegel (both of Lorain), 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Friends may call on Friday, September 27, 2013 from 2-6 p.m. in the Reichlin-Cooley Funeral Home, 2920 Broadway Ave., Lorain, Ohio 44055.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 :00 a.m. Friday, September 28, 2013 at Holy Trinity Church, 33601 Detroit Road, Avon, OH 44011, with Rev. Richard Gosner, as celebrant.

Burial will be in Ridge Hill Memorial Park, Amherst Twp.