Samuel Goodwin's Family

Memories of My Brothers and Sisters

By Arleen Goodwin Rounds at her 90th birthday party, September 10, 1995.

You don’t know how thrilled I am to see you all here today. I have counted the days like a kid counting the days till Christmas, but the BIG DAY has come at last. I’m really on Cloud 9!

=Arema Wanda Arleen Harold, LaPriel Myrl Thelma

This is about the Samuel Goodwin family, a great and wonderful family of three boys and six girls.

Harold Goodwin

Harold was small in High School; he was called “Fingo.”

I was nine years old when he left for his mission to Germany. He was put in jail for preaching the Gospel on the street corner. He tore up all the names and addresses of the other missionaries so the police wouldn’t be able to find them. The Berlin Police saw a flyer sent to Harold about Dad running for the School Board. They quickly released him thinking that Harold’s family were very important people in the U.S.A. - and we were!

He was a great athlete, tall and handsome, a great doctor, always thinking of his sisters. When I was a patient in Holy Cross Hospital, he was on staff there. They came in my room and asked, “Do you have enough money to pay your bill?” I said, “I have plenty.” I knew if I didn’t, he would pay my bill himself, which by the way was $188.00 for ten days!

Hal was a great father and grandfather. He had two children, Elaine and Barbara.

Added by Richard Gudmunsen:

Harold was a such a jolly, fun person and such a tease. I loved to be around him. He was a wonderful, generous person. He had the most beautiful bass voice I have ever heard.

After he earned his medical degree he went to work as a doctor in the Park City Mines. Then when the mine closed down, he worked in a hospital in Salt Lake City.

Stanley Goodwin

He went on a mission, also to Germany, at age 27. He was a brilliant boy, and when he was in High School, he made a little “crystal set,” the first radio I’d ever heard. We used to sit up late at night listening to the great dance bands across the country. Stan would wear the ear phones first, then it would be my turn. I though he was very smart - he was.

Stan filled an honorable mission, came home, married Virginia Graff and was killed in a car crash on his honeymoon.

Ralph Goodwin

Ralph was such a sweet little boy. When he was seven, his teacher in school was having all these little boys make aprons for their mothers for a surprise Christmas present. Ralph came home happy as a lark this particular day, ate his dinner and was off again to school, returning almost immediately sobbing and crying. Mother said, “Honey, what on earth is the matter?” “I lost my lace,” he sobbed. Wanda had brought the lace home for his apron and mother had seen it fall out of Ralph’s pocket. She had picked it up, so she handed it to him. He joyfully ran back to school. The apron was a success; she wore it often. We kidded Ralph for years about, “I lost my lace.”

Ralph was small. When in High School, he was a mascot for the basketball team. He sat on their laps during assemblies. He became a great athlete, winning 16 letters at the University of Utah. He filled an honorable mission to France and was there when he received news of Stan’s death. He returned home and became a great doctor. Ralph was always for the “underdog” and was the idol of all the young boys.

He married Lorraine Shaw. He was happily married and had four children: Janet, Diane, David, and Marilyn.

Added by Richard Gudmundsen

After he earned his medical degree he went to work as the doctor for the Boulder Dam Construction site. It’s now called Hoover Dam. Ralph told a story of a man he treated who had fallen off the dam and impaled himself on a steel reinforcing rod. The site workers had to cut though the rod with an acetylene torch. Then they pulled the rod out of the man. Ralph hardly knew what to do for the terrible wound. He poured in iodine to disinfect it. The man lived!.

During WWII he served as a doctor at Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.

He once told this joke:

A guy from Brooklyn was looking out a window. "Look at them boids down there," he said. "They're not boids, they're birds," said his friend. The Brooklynite responded, "Well, they sure choip like boids!"

Wanda Goodwin Curtis

When she was about 17 years-old, she was chosen to be the Goddess of Liberty on the Lehi Float in the July 4th parade. She looked so beautiful in her white dress with her blond hair, wearing the gold crown on her head. I was about six years-old then, and I thought she was the most beautiful one in the parade. I followed the float for blocks.

Later when I was twelve, Wanda was the head buyer in the dry goods department at the People’s Co-op. From time to time, she would “hire me” to straighten out the ribbon case. As I remember, she paid me ten cents which was BIG money in those days. I thought I was rich!

Wanda was a great seamstress in later years and made me many clothes. She was a wonderful, loyal sister - quiet and in the background when the rest of us were up front performing. I love her with all my heart.

Wanda married Claude Curtis and was the mother of Bob, Paul, and Ray.

Added by Richard Gudmundsen

During the war Claude Curtis was a major in the army. He was in charge of a prison camp somewhere in Wyoming or Nebraska. He had severe arthritis which caused him to have a drinking problem later in life.

Myrl Goodwin Gudmundsen

She was my buddy. When I fell out of the apple tree, she heard my cries and came running out of the house and picked me up. I was about eight years-old.

When I went swimming at Murcock’s Beach on the shore of Utah Lake, I got such a terrible sunburn. It was Myrl again who doctored me with witch hazel. She carried me around and bought me ice-cream cones. THAT really helped!

Myrl was a great swimmer and was the first to use the high dive at Saratoga, which by the way is no more.

She was a great trickster. Whenever one of us was going on a trip, she would put some crazy thing in the suitcase, unbeknownst to us. She put a carrot in mine, wrapped in newspaper. I knew it was Myrl up to her old tricks. Once when Ralph was going to Hawaii with the University of Utah football team, Myrl put a little doll in his suitcase. When the follows were unpacking, Ralph picked up this thing, wrapped in newspaper and as he opened it, the little doll said, “Mama.” Oh, the follows really razzed him.

Myrl was very ambitious, always wanting to learn everything to improve her mind as her schooling had been limited. She was a great hostess and always fed us when we visited her, and she always had candy around.

She married Austin Gudmundsen and was the mother of Dick, Lois, Stan, and Ruth.

Thelma Goodwin

She made me clothes. She gave me money, always saying, “You have to help me spend my money, I can’t take it with me!“ She didn’t; she was so generous and left nearly $40,000 to the Church in her will. She was such a good sister to Wanda and a blessing to her in later years.

Thelma had a brilliant mind and a great memory. She corrected Genealogical records for the Lehi Stake at age 95 with never an error. She was perfect in her record keeping. We found that out after her death.

She was a dear sister. She loved everyone and all who knew her loved her in return.

Added by Richard Gudmundsen

Although she had several proposals, she never married.

Arema Goodwin Dalton

She was another very generous sister. I could never give her anything until she would give me something in return. I didn’t bring a dress with me as we had decided to wear pants. However, we changed our minds. Arema gave me this beautiful pink dress I am wearing.

As children we were pals. I had decided at a young age to send off so many box tops to get a beautiful gold ring with a ruby. We watched the mail every day. Finally it came and Arema came rushing down to the Ross home where I was playing and said, “Arleen, your ring has come!” We raced home. There was the package. We could hardly wait to see the ring; there it lay in all its beauty - gold with a ruby. It fit perfectly. I wore it until my finger turned green. Such it was - for so many box tops!

Arema taught school in Ogden. She bought me many beautiful pairs of real silk hose - not the rayon and cotton I was wearing. I was so happy.

She married Mark Dalton and is the mother of Gloria, Donna, Thelma, Carol, and Mark.

Added by Richard Gudmundsen

Mark Dalton was the Chief Radiologist in U.S. Navy.

LaPriel Goodwin Wilson

“My Lovely Sister.” She received that nickname when she wrote a letter to Myrl who was on a mission to Florida. Priel told her all the news from home and closed her letter, “Love, from your lovely sister, LaPriel.”

As very young children, I used to take her downstairs in the morning when she was a baby, placing her on my lap and sliding from one step to a lower one. Mother was so happy with this arrangement; it saved her many steps. Priel was about one year-old and I was five.

Later when we grew up, years didn’t made a difference. We were pals. Once she washed and ironed all my blouses, 19 of them, and cleaned my white and colored shoes.

We traded clothes, and took many trips together. We were such pals. We shared the same bedroom while growing up. We have been so close as we were the two youngest girls. She knows my love for her, it knows no bounds.

Priel married Bob Wilson and is the mother of Sandy and Laurie.

Arleen Goodwin Rounds

Now about me! I have my birth certificate yellow with age. It reads, “Born at home on a Tuesday afternoon at 3 P.M. weighing 8 pounds. Dr. William Stookey - attending physician.” No babies were ever born in a hospital in those days. I was a healthy baby, 7th in line.

As I approached my sixth birthday, I worried about starting school. I did not want to go. Mother said I must go, that I would meet a lot of nice children. I was not convinced, but the awful day came, and she took me down to school. When I saw all those big kids and the strange teacher, I really panicked. Mother stayed around for awhile until she thought I had settled down; then she went home. Well, when I saw her go, I was really scared. I ran out of the room after her. I ran all the way home. She said when she got home, there I was standing in the door, my eyes “big as saucers.” She didn’t scold me or send me back but let me play around. Next morning, I took off to school on my own, and I loved it and have loved school ever since.

As you can see, I was a climber, a tomboy. See the scab on my nose in my 2nd grade picture.? I was always climbing - trees, fences - I guess I would have climbed a flagpole if we’d have had one. I chose the biggest tree we had and climbed to the top, went out on a limb, it broke and down I went.

P.S. I don’t climb anymore!!

Added by Richard Gudmundsen

Arleen married Clifford Rounds. She was his second wife. Clifford Rounds was in construction. He owned a huge piece of construction equipment called a drag line. It was a huge 300 foot crane with big ball to lift things and probably cost about $750,000. . He used it to haul concrete for dams and in the construction of tall buildings. He was quite wealthy.

Added by Joyce Gudmundsen Richardson
I did not know the brothers. But I grew up knowing all the sisters. They were all kind, generous, and good. They were also very young at heart and the life of any party! They were elegant, beautiful women.