Annette Goodell Gardner of Marion, age 95, passed away at Kindred Forestview Rehab in Wareham on August 1, 2015. Born in Cambridge, MA on December 16, 1919 she was the daughter of the late Edwin Burpee Goodell,Jr.,architect, of Wayland and Montclair, NJ and the late Elbra Dickinson Goodell of Cambridge. She was the wife of the late Robert “Bob” Gardner III, automotive engineer, of Marion, who she met in 1945. She was the sister of the late Edwin “Ned” Goodell and the late Elizabeth “Beth”GoodellDeFries. She adored “La La” the childhood family nanny and her late step-mother Ann Mathea Rogeberg Goodell, who taught her knitting, baking delicious desserts, and a love of music.
In 1940 Annette married beloved Dudley Richards Emerson and lived in Brookline. They met as counselors at Camp Aloha and Camp Lanakila in Vermont. In 1944 they had a daughter Beth Dudley Emerson who died in an auto accident in 1965. Dudley was killed in 1945 in Italy in action with the 10th Mountain Division in WWII.
She is survived by her half-brother Francis “Franny” Goodell of Daytona Beach, Florida, and his five children and offspring; her half-brother Charles “Pete” Waterbury Goodell and his wife Trelawney “Lawney” of Lexington, MA and their two children and offspring; step-son Robert “Rocky” Gardner IV and step-daughter and caregiver Anne Gardner Barnes and her husband Walter of Westport, MA and their three sons and offspring.
A lifelong advocate of education, Annette was a graduate of Westover School in 1938, awarded a Bachelor of Science degree at BouveBoston School of Physical Education in affiliation with Simmons College in 1942,and earned a Master of Education degree from Boston University in 1942. She taught “physaled,” as she said, in Wayland, Newton and Maryland. She became a guidance counselor in Maryland after further education at universities in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area.She enjoyed horses and said frequently that “horses brought me up.” She rode at age three and in her teen years cared for several horses and rode on many trails with equestrian Mrs. Dickson. She sketched and painted Morgan horses, cats, nature and friends.She also enjoyed holidays with family, book reading, sports, swimming, and pistachio ice cream. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, she vacationed at “Half-a-Loaf,” a cottage at the water’s edge in Aucoot Cove in Marion and, when in August 1954 the storm surge of Hurricane Carol moved it in pieces to the marsh, a small home was rebuilt by Bob, Annette, and family on higher ground in Marion.
After passing two Coast Guard Auxilary courses, from the 1960’s into the 1990’s she sailed as first mate with husband Bob on their beloved Blue Crest, a 30 foot, 1939 wooden Tahiti ketch in the waters of New England, the Chesapeake Bay, Florida, and the Bahamas. In homeport Marion, she loved to watch and describe the changes in blue skies, clouds, and winds, in her view of Aucoot Cove. She looked forward to Wednesday meetings as a Marion Wordsmyth to write poetry and prose and see her literary friends. She was inspired by her distant cousin Emily Dickinson and by her mother, a lifelong poet, writer and traveler.Annette was witty and gracious with lots of stories and “re-memories”. She loved to laugh and bid adieu with a loving “arms around”. Any queries about her health would be answered with “slick as a green bean.”
Remembrances may be made to the Elizabeth Taber Library, Marion Police Brotherhood, or Friends of the Marion Council on Aging.
Her graveside service was held on August 6, 2015 at Evergreen Cemetery in Marion.