GOODIN: November 11th, 1957. On a foggy Monday, Nadine James entered our world by way of Elyria, OH, a healthy baby girl born to Leanna James & Wiley Smith. After spending her early life in the same bustling town in which she began and attending Elyria High School, she soon met David Goodin. The pair would go on to have two children, David Kage Goodin and Jullian Goodin. Soon after, she would make the decision of a lifetime; to leave Elyria and move hurriedly to Atlanta, Georgia, getting daycare jobs to offset the cost of childcare for her sons as she found her footing in the south. She soon found her calling in sales, working at Rhodes Furniture and Rooms to Go for a combined excess of 30 years. She received many awards throughout her tenure at both businesses, distinguishing herself as a leader in both her workplace and her field at large throughout her career.

An avid sports fan, she was a loyal member of the “Dawg Pound”, supporting the Cleveland Browns all her life. Nadine loved and appreciated art in its many forms, be it jazz and other music, or the culinary arts through her adventurous palate and love of food. Her philanthropic heart and spirit led her to be a mentor and role model to many young women and single mothers in her time, and she would later find herself dedicating this same unbounded generosity  to veterans after her own son, Jullian’s time in the military from 1999 to 2005.

Nadine was tremendously and undeniably devoted to her friends and family, as is evidenced by your and my presence here today. Her boys, Kage and Jullian, were and remain her first and true love. By her own account, becoming a grandparent completed her, and days spent with her granddaughter, Klark Julliana Goodin, remain some of, if not the, happiest of her life.

Legacy Funeral Home, Inc.

(770) 477-2273