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In memory of

Donna "DJ" Jon Goddard

Federal Way, WA

September 14, 1944 - December 14, 2021

Sep 14, 1944 - Dec 14, 2021

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Donna Jon Goddard was born in Seattle, Washington on September 21, 1944 to Donald (Don) Calkins and Violet (Vi) Smith Calkins. She lived in the West Seattle/White Center area for seven years with her parents, sister Carleen and brother Jim. In late 1950 her parents divorced. Her mother, Vi married William (Bill) Cherry in late summer 1951. In September 1952, Bill Cherry, who had a career in the U.S. Army, was transferred to Fort Richardson, Alaska near Anchorage. The family lived in Alaska for the next eight years. Bill and Vi Cherry had four boys together, Bill, Dave, Lloyd and Mark. Mark died shortly after birth.

In September 1960, Bill Cherry was transferred to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma near Lawton. On their way down from Alaska, the family stayed in the Seattle area for a few weeks on vacation to visit with family and friends. Shortly after arriving in Oklahoma, Carleen moved to Dallas/Fort Worth and Donna stayed in Seattle to live with family and finish out her schooling at Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle in 1961. Donna spent most of that year living with her Aunt Dewey Smith Bee and her husband, Uncle Wally. Bill Cherry was transferred to Fort Worth. Texas to become an Army recruiter and after high school, Donna moved to be near the family in Fort Worth.

In early 1962, Donna met her first husband, John Mills. She met John through her brother Jim who worked for John as a paperboy. The couple were married later that year. In late June 1963, Donna gave birth to her son William Barrett. She became pregnant with her daughter Gwendolyn DeAnn in February 1964. Shortly thereafter, John Mills enlisted in the U.S. Navy. John chose a career in submarines and informed Donna that he would not be able to see her for at least a year. With that news, Donna, pregnant and with a toddler, drove an old pick-up truck from Oklahoma to Seattle to move in with her Uncle Carl Smith, Aunt Kay and her cousins Chris and Kelly at their home in West Seattle.

Shortly after arriving in West Seattle, Donna gave birth to her daughter, DeAnn in November 1964. She and her two small children moved into the apartment Uncle Carl had built for them in the basement of his house. Donna and the kids quickly built a strong relationship with Carl, Kay, Chris and Kelly. Aunt Kay became a mentor to Donna as she helped guide a young mother with two small children. Donna became a waitress at the Alki Homestead in West Seattle and lived with the Smiths until early 1966 when she and the kids moved to a small duplex on the corner of Holly Street and California Avenue in West Seattle. When she moved into the duplex, she met her neighbor Jan Darringer who become one of her dearest, life-long friends. Donna and her husband John, finalized their divorced in 1968. That same year, Donna got a job waiting tables at the Space Needle where she worked for six years.

In the Summer of 1969, Donna and the kids moved to Burien to be near her parents, Bill and Vi Cherry and their boys, who had moved to Burien in the summer of 1965 after Bill retired from the U.S. Army. Donna rented a house owned by her Uncle Gordon Smith. This house happened to be across the street from the family home of her future second husband, Richard (Dick) Goddard. Donna met Dick one day when she had the hood of her car up and was trying to get the car started. Dick, who had recently been honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force, was living at his parent’s house and came over to help her. It was a brief encounter in which he helped Donna get her car started. This encounter was witnessed by her mother, Vi who excitedly proclaimed to her, “Donna, you are going to marry that man!” Donna laughed and said, “Oh Mother, you’re crazy!” Fifteen months later, Dick and Donna were married in December 1970 and moved to the Des Moines area. The next Summer 1971, they bought a house in the Woodmont/Redondo area of north Federal Way and settled in there to raise the kids.

Donna often described the next ten years as some of the best times in her life. She was married to a man she loved, had a nice house, had two thriving kids and was able to spend time with her extended family. In that time, settled into becoming a wife, mother and homemaker around her shifts at the Space Needle. She loved the holidays, especially Christmas and hosted several family dinners and events at her house. She loved to make everyone feel welcome. Dick and Donna spent almost every Friday have “family nights” with the kids which would include going out to dinner, going to drive-in movies and playing games at the dining room table. They also enjoyed playing Bridge or Pinochle with Vi and Aunt Dewey and their friends Dale and Lexie Peake. Donna was a loving wife and mom. She was very content and happy.

In 1974, Donna became very ill and had to have a major operation. This illness, operation and recovery took a major toll on her body. She was forced to quit a job she loved at the Space Needle. While she was recovering from surgery, she was receiving phone calls from her sister Carleen every Sunday morning. Carleen would ask her every week if she had watched Dr. Robert Schuller on the “Hour of Power”, a Sunday morning church service that was broadcast on television. She would always answer no and Carleen would encourage her to watch him. After months of weekly phone calls, Donna finally watched a show. The show changed her life. She heard things she had never heard before about the value and worth of her life and about being loved unconditionally by God. This revelation about her life led to Donna becoming a born-again Christian. Donna accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and began a new life as a Christian.

After quitting her job at the Space Needle, Donna took on several small jobs to supplement the family income including selling Avon and Tupperware. She eventually went to Beauty College and received her degree two years later. She got licensed to become a beautician and opened up her little beauty shop, The Halo, with her life-long friend Lexie in the basement of her home. As Donna began to grow in the Lord and become a stronger Christian, it began to strain her relationship with her husband, Dick. With differing opinions, priorities and outlooks on their lives, the two eventually divorced in the Spring of 1983.

In the late summer of 1983, Donna took a full-time job with Stonecroft Ministries at their international headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. This was a whole new adventure for Donna and gave her a path to put her full working energy toward advancing the Kingdom of God. Despite the distance from her loved ones, she enjoyed working for Stonecroft and fellowshipping with other Christians at the headquarters. While in Kansas City, she began telling her Christian stories to the people around her which eventually led to her traveling and speaking to other small Christian groups in the Midwest region. She eventually wrote a book about some of these stories.

Donna came back to Washington State in 1988 for almost two years to care for her mother Vi who was ill and could no longer care for herself without help. Bill and Vi had retired to their final home on Hood Canal in Brinnon, Washington. During that time, Donna was able to spend all of her time with her mother caring for her, telling stories, singing, doing crossword puzzles, watching sermons on television and visiting with family and friends who stopped by to see them. Violet passed away to be with the Lord in 1989. Donna moved back to Kansas City to finish out her ministry time there, but knew in her heart it was time to come back to her family in the Pacific Northwest. After 20 years of full-time ministry with Stonecroft, Donna moved back to Black Diamond, Washington in 2003 and took a job at Camp Berachah as the main receptionist for the camp and its many programs. While in Black Diamond she was able to re-establish her relationships with her family and friends and begin relationships with her grandchildren who all lived in the area. Donna enjoyed her time at Camp Berachah and stayed with them for the next nine years before retiring.

Upon her retirement, Donna took up a temporary residence in an apartment in Federal Way before moving to her final residence in a condominium in Federal Way. During her retirement years, she enjoyed meeting up with her brothers and their families. She had a dinner appointment with her brother Jim and his wife Kathy every Thursday night where they would have dinner and enjoy activities together like playing games or watching a show on the television together. She spent several afternoons, evenings and holidays with her brother Lloyd and his wife Barb and their kids. She would often get to see her brother Bill and his wife Lydia and her brother Dave and his family during these gatherings at Lloyd’s house which almost always included having meals together and playing Scrabble or Pinochle.

Donna was also able to visit and enjoy her children and grandchildren on a more regular basis. She enjoyed visiting her son Barrett and his wife Sylvia along with their children in SW Washington. Donna also spent a considerable amount of time with her daughter, DeAnn along with her children. Donna expressed on many occasions how much she was blessed with the ability to visit and enjoy her children, grandchildren and eventually great grandchildren. She had her family, but she also had her church family. Donna attended Christ’s Church here in Federal Way and fast became a thriving member of the church and her small bible study group. She often mentioned how important her church, church family and Pastor Jeff were to her.

Donna kept in touch with her friends both locally and abroad. She became involved in a Brazilian embroidery group that met once a week and would often adjourn into coffee or lunch. Along with her friends from her sewing group, Donna maintained her long-distance relationships with her friends at Stonecroft and her dear friends, Doug and Barb Puller in North Idaho. She was fortunate enough to have two life-long friends here in Seattle, Kathy Wagner whom she had known since they were 3-4 years old and later Lexie Peake who moved in with Kathy’s family in West Seattle in her early teens. They remained great friends over the decades.

Of all of Donna’s family and friends, her most important relationship may have been with her sister Carleen. Separated by two years in age, they were cut from the same cloth. Born during World War II, they were a product of a broken home, then later they moved into a blended family home. Despite their circumstances, Donna and her older sister Carleen proved that they were fighters, survivors, resourceful, hard-working and later, faithful saints through the blood of Jesus Christ. When the haze of childhood, marriages, divorces, children, grandchildren and careers had settled, Carleen and Donna were standing next to each other holding hands and singing hymns. They called each other kid, laughed until it hurt and could have complete conversations with just a look. Anyone would be blessed to have such a sibling relationship.

Donna suffered a fall in her home in July 2021. She went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a defective heart valve that caused havoc in her system including low oxygen levels, blood pressure issues, blood sugar issues, breathing issues and a deadly blood infection. Eventually her kidneys failed and she was put on a dialysis schedule. The medical staff deemed her inoperable as they felt she would likely not survive heart surgery. She spent 11 weeks in the hospital and almost died on three separate occasions. But she fought hard, after some improvement in her stabilized conditions, she was discharged from the hospital and transferred to a nearby home care facility. At that time, she made a cognitive choice to be transported to dialysis treatments three times a week. Dialysis treatments and transportation took a toll on her physically, but she wanted to have more opportunities to witness to medical staff about Jesus and God’s goodness and continue to visit with her family. In her final months, she enjoyed several visits from family and friends. These visits would often include a Starbuck’s vanilla latte and something delicious to eat. After six weeks of dialysis treatments, Donna was sent back to the hospital due to deteriorating health. She was there for two weeks where medical staff deemed her situation as dire. She moved back to the health care facility where she passed away a week later on December 14, 2021.

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