Noella Mae (Miller) Goodell

Noella Goodell 6 years shy of a CENTENARIAN OF GREAT FALLS.

On a cold snowy Christmas Day in 1924 a special delivery arrived....a baby girl named Noella Mae Goodell.

She was brought into a home with her parents Louisa & Vere Miller and her older sister, Maxine.  A baby brother, Richard, concluded the nucleus family.

During the Depression, as a very young girl, Noella lost her father.  Her mother raised three children by herself in these trying times working as a secretary.   Another tragedy struck this small family when Noella was fourteen.  She lost her loving sister and best friend to appendicitis.     Noella completed Great Falls High School and continued on to the College of Great Falls.

Gorgeous and twenty, Noella went on a blind date with a pilot stationed at Great Falls Airbase, Harry Goodell.  As WWII was winding down, they were married on March 7th, 1945.

 Noella was excited to travel the world with her pilot husband and venture out of Great Falls.  She got as far as Fort Collins, Colorado where her husband set her up in a trailer and after the birth of her first son, Phillip, an upgrade to a quonset hut, while he went to school to become a veterinarian and emerge as Dr. Goodell. 

Her pleads for running water and an indoor kitchen were finally heard and Dr. Goodell & family moved back to.......you guessed it.....Great Falls, Montana.

It was at this time that she made her imprint on Great Falls and received her long awaited for indoor plumbing.  In 1952, as her veterinarian husbands schedule was booked, she walked herself to the hospital while in labor with her second son, Mark.  Two years later, a beautiful daughter arrived, Patricia. 

She was a Sister of PEO for fifty years and a member of a Book Club, Junior League, YWCA, J Ceans, PTA, Easter Seals and more.

With the kids grown, finally her dreams of traveling materialized, and she jet stetted around the world.  Dr. Goodell’s retirement brought 20 years of wintering in Palm Springs with golf clubs and good friends. 

After 2 1/2 years of assisted living, Noella lost her husband on October 2, 2011.

Now on her own, Noella defined herself as jazzy, snappy and fresh new comedian. 

Noella kept her wit (and driver’s license) until the closing of her life chapter on August 18, 2019. At 94 1/2 years of age, her wish to pass away was granted leaving behind her three children, five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, best friends Donna Page, Arlene O’Day, Ibby Devine and Lois Holter and a lifetime of friends and acquaintances.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Croxford Funeral Home on Friday, August 23 at 12:30 p.m. with a   Reception to follow at Meadowlark Country Club, 300 Country Club Boulevard.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Noella Mae (Miller) Goodell, please visit our floral store.