Obituary of Natalie Soule Goodrich

Duxbury has lost another treasure.  Natalie Soule Goodrich passed away peacefully on Thursday June 28, 2018, her family by her side.

The youngest of three girls, Natalie was born August 5, 1921 in Malden, MA to Ethel J. and Russel W. Soule.  Russell was a 10th generation Mayflower descendant.  She spent her early childhood in Everett, Lexington and Lockport, NY but her summer vacations before and during the Great Depression were always spent at the family homestead on Powder Point.  Upon the death of her Grandfather, Russell moved the family to Duxbury permanently.

Natalie graduated from Duxbury High School in 1939.  She attended Curry College in Boston and there met her first husband James N. Henry II of Rhode Island.  James became a Navy flyer and their son James III (Jay) was born in Pensacola FL.  Sadly, after only a year and a half of marriage, James passed away.  Natalie and Jay returned to Duxbury to stay.

Back at home, she rekindled a friendship with Benjamin F. Goodrich, Jr., another lifelong fixture in Duxbury.  They were married in June of 1949, adopted Jay, Nina and Ben III and were together for 57 years until Bud’s death in 2006.    

For more than 70 years Natalie was a fixture in the art, theater, charity and social world of Duxbury.  Her loves ranged from The Mayflower Society and the Soule Kindred of America to her association with the Bay Players and the stage. She loved Saint John’s Church, volunteering for the Historical Society and The Art Complex, participating in the Duxbury Garden Clubs and arranging flowers. She also enjoyed tennis, golf and boating on the bay, picnics on Big Beach, working in the garden, birding, poetry, art, nature and history.  And that’s just the start.

She love her time spent with her family and friends most of all.  She was a fiercely loyal loving friend, sister, aunt and grandmother, kind and thoughtful to a fault.  She loved dearly and found great joy in her many nieces and nephews and their children as well.  She genuinely treated everyone she knew as a close friend.  She will certainly be remembered for her indomitable spirit, optimism, grace and sense of humor.

Natalie is survived by her daughter Nina and her husband Lindsay Mulholland of Charlottesville VA, their children Joan Elizabeth and Heather Mulholland of Washington State and Kufa Mulholland of Kitchener Ontario, son Benjamin F. Goodrich III and his wife Cheryl of Duxbury, their daughter Ashley M. Dailey of Portsmouth NH and her granddaughter Brigid Bergholz of Fallbrook CA, her husband Hutch and their two sons.  She is also survived by many dearly loved nieces, nephews and their families.

A celebration of her life will be held at 11 AM on August 3, 2018 at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, 520 Washington St. in Duxbury MA.  Internment services will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Church of Saint John the Evangelist or to the American Heart Association.