Donna Joy Goddard, née Smithart, passed away in Decatur, Georgia on June 21, 2024, after a rapid progression of cancer. She was 79 years old. Donna was gone too fast and too soon, and she’ll forever be remembered as a kind and warm friend to all who knew her.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee on February 28, 1945, Donna was the beloved eldest child of Grover and Mildred Smithart and a role model to younger sister, Judy. Donna was always lively, bright, and full of aspiration. When she was 6 years old, she had a mesmerizing encounter with a former Miss America who played the piano in front of a crowd at a Christmas party. Later, Donna asked her mother for piano lessons, saying, “I want to play like SHE does.”

And play she did. She was as hardworking as she was naturally gifted, and became a church pianist at the young age of 11. Ever active, Donna was a star student and a member of various school clubs. After high school, she headed to the University of Memphis, where she earned her degree in education. Following college, she worked at the Baptist Hospital School of Nursing and was also the pianist for their Nightingale choir. Hungry for more learning, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she pursued a master’s degree at the Southern Baptist Seminary.

She didn’t quite finish—at least, not right away. In seminary classes she met Larry Goddard. The two decided to marry and Donna took up her first of many vocations working as an English teacher in Sellersburg Indiana, which suited her book-loving and child-loving character. When Larry got a job in Atlanta, Georgia, a short while later, Donna was pregnant with their first child. The two moved in 1973, and their son, Jeffrey Goddard, was born shortly after.

In Georgia, Donna stayed in the world of children’s education as the Director of Early Childhood Development at the First Baptist Church of Decatur, and later decided to work alongside Larry at his film and video production company. She was an attentive mother who loved spending time with her son, his friends, and his classmates, frequently chaperoning school events. She was a nurturer, someone who wouldn’t turn away a person in need. She firmly believed that “God is love” and lived her life in alignment with that belief.

The best example of Donna’s welcoming arms happened in the 1990s when Donna and Larry were asked to host Kairos, a traveling group of young Cuban musicians. It was Christmastime, and the Goddards were happy to take them in. They supported and hosted the band on future trips as well. Due to pregnancy complications, one singer couldn’t return home, and Donna and Larry invited her to stay with them. Lisset was regarded as a daughter, and her son Gabriel was loved as their grandchild.

Around the same time, Donna was diagnosed with and eventually overcame breast cancer. In spite of all of this, it was then that Donna also decided that she wanted the career and schooling she had given up so many years before. She enrolled in the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and finally finished her master’s degree. Inspired by her new daughter and the Cuban community she’d come to love, Donna founded the Kairos church, which initially met at their house every week. Her son Jeff remembers a core belief she shared with him when he was young: A building is just a building, but “the people are the church.”

After a separation and then divorce from Larry, Donna began working as a hospice chaplain and eventually became a chaplain in the women’s unit of Northside Hospital. Chaplaincy was important to her, and she felt a deep sense of duty and fulfillment in being able to comfort so many women in their times of grief, fear, or despair.

Donna will be remembered for the way she helped and connected with people from all walks of life whether through chaplaincy, book clubs, church, or her work helping and welcoming immigrant communities. Her connection with her Cuban kin lasted for the rest of her life, and she visited Cuba multiple times, carrying suitcases of whatever she could bring that they might need. If you met Donna, you felt like she wanted to know you. She did.

Through years of being a chaplain, Donna seemed to learn a resilience and dignity in the face of illness that astounded everyone. This served her when she developed and overcame cancer again in the early 2010s, and later in May of this year when she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She only lived for a few weeks after that final diagnosis, but they were full of meaningful moments with family and friends—even in her last days, Donna was building community. And she was at peace.

Donna is predeceased by parents Grover and Mildred Smithart, and sister Judy Smithart. She is survived by her son, Jeffrey Goddard and his wife, Jasmina Krnjetin; daughter, Lisset Rodes; and grandchildren Hannah, Gavin, and Gabriel.

A memorial service for Donna will be held at 2pm on August 10th, 2024, at Oakhurst Baptist Church at 222 East Lake Drive, Decatur, GA, immediately followed by a reception in fellowship hall.

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