The Way We Were: Marlene Goodwin

The Way We Were: Marlene Goodwin
Marlene Goodwin, Lee High, 1954

Marlene Goodwin is a Jacksonville native, as were her father and his parents. She entered the world in 1936 at St. Vincent’s Hospital. She was the youngest of seven children and had a sister 18 years her senior who served as a second mom.

Growing up on Colonial Avenue in Lakeshore, Marlene enjoyed playing hopscotch outside. “I absolutely loved going to school and growing up here,” she said. A cheerleader, Marlene lived close enough to Lakeshore Elementary School that she could walk there through ninth grade. Marlene did ride a bus though to get downtown on Saturdays to dine on Woolworth’s Blue Plate Special. “I remember the Blue Willow divided plates,” she said. Afterwards, she enjoyed the bouncing ball singalongs at the Florida Theatre. Sometimes, she and her friends played spin the bottle.

After Lakeshore Elementary, Marlene attended what was then called Robert E. Lee High School for 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. In the 10th grade is where Marlene met Tom Sandlin, Sr. “The most significant thing about high school is that I was going with my high school sweetheart, and he ran track,” she said. The couple would eventually marry, have three children together, and then divorce after 23 years.

Linda Wood in front of Cynthia Segraves’s Willys Jeep Station Wagon
Linda Wood in front of Cynthia Segraves’s Willys Jeep Station Wagon

Marlene belonged to a sorority in high school, and it was all about football games and parties. She and her friend Cynthia Segraves and sometimes Linda Wood would hop in Cynthia’s Willys Jeep Station Wagon, a British vehicle that had been Americanized by switching the steering side. “We took the seats out of the back of the wagon, so it would hold maybe ten people after school,” Marlene said. Popular places to drive to for milkshakes were the Sandwich Inn and Tad’s Restaurant. They liked drive-in movies, too.

Even though Cynthia’s dad had owned the Shell filling station at the corner of Ingleside and St. Johns Avenues, he still insisted that his daughter pay for her own gas. So, the group of friends would take turns each contributing a quarter, which would cover nearly a gallon of gas at that time. Close to seven decades later, “our class continues to remain bonded,” Marlene said, and she continues to be involved with organizing their reunions.

Mr. Segraves, owner of Shell filling station, 1950s
Mr. Segraves, owner of Shell filling station, 1950s

After Lee’s graduation in 1954, Marlene went straight to work at Federal Reserve Bank before switching jobs to work for the Navy. Not a military service member herself, Marlene landed a position at Naval Air Station, conducting interviews of military personnel for household moves when they were being transferred.

As a young married couple, Marlene and Tom lived in an Avondale apartment before buying a house in Lakeshore. As their family grew, they bought a home on a corner lot in Venetia. “It was a great place to bring up a family,” Marlene said. There were 17 or so neighborhood children who would gather in their yard to play after school. Marlene, a stay-at-home mom, would gather with the other mothers and chat.

Though Marlene’s marriage had ended in divorce, the couple remained friends, even serving together on a Lee reunion committee until Tom’s passing. After the divorce, Marlene had returned to the workforce, this time for a man named Carl at Reynolds and Reynolds near her Venetia home.

Bob Goodwin was a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy, a pilot from New England, who had been stationed in Jacksonville during the Korean conflict. A job offer brought the father of three back to Jacksonville many years later. In 1981, Bob was a divorcee living in Avondale, and a mutual friend, Tesch Brundick, introduced him to Marlene.

Marlene, at that time, was a single mom raising three children and a dog. Her terminally ill mother was living with them. Marlene was also working fulltime outside the home at Reynolds. “I was not thinking about dating anybody at all. But I still had time for him,” Marlene said of Bob.

Bob and Marlene dated for three years before marrying in 1984. Bob had proposed to Marlene on Valentine’s Day via a billboard on Old Route 17 at the approach of Roosevelt Boulevard, across from the Bank of America. Inside a huge heart, the sign read, “M, Will you? B.” Marlene had driven by the sign early in the day but hadn’t noticed it. Bob had to draw her attention to it later that evening on their way to dinner. The following day, the billboard initials had been filled in with their names, Marlene and Bob. Added was, “Yes!” It remained up for a month. During that time, their engagement story had been printed in the local newspaper. “If you can put it on a billboard, I can have a newspaper story,” Marlene told Bob.

Marlene and Bob Goodwin, 1984
Marlene and Bob Goodwin, 1984

Before they married, Marlene became a member of Bob’s church, Riverside Presbyterian. She still enjoys fellowship there today and has volunteered in several capacities over the years, as did Bob until his death in 2010. “I need that fellowship with others,” she said.

Marlene Goodwin, 2022
Marlene Goodwin, 2022

While married to Bob and after retiring from Reynolds and Reynolds, Marlene developed an interest in antiques, and she started working in an antique and gift shop. She began making her own particular line of jewelry out of flow blue porcelain. “I am passionate about the color blue,” she said. Today, she sells her unique pieces at Design Additions on St. Johns Avenue and belongs to an international collectors’ club where she used to be director of an entire division.

Her entrepreneurial spirit and her interest in antiques, Marlene believes, were inherited from her aunts. Marlene’s mom had two older sisters; one owned Wainwright Florist downtown. Her mother’s other sister, Bess Morris, was an antique dealer and appraiser in San Marco. “We would frequently go to her shop and spend time,” Marlene said. These are women who had grown up in the late 1800s and “were way ahead of their time as entrepreneurs,” Marlene said.

Marlene Goodwin with 4 of her 6 grandchildren
Marlene Goodwin with 4 of her 6 grandchildren

Marlene is now grandmother to six, including those of her blended family. She lives in Ortega and takes daily walks through the neighborhood near her apartment complex. As she walks past what used to be the German American Club on Lakeside Drive, now the Ortega River Club, she recalls that she had spent her 16th birthday there with her friend Joyce Mangles, whose family held membership.

“I’ve lived in Jacksonville all my life. I absolutely love where I live. I just don’t know that there’s anywhere else that can compare,” Marlene said.

When asked how she is able to keep her energy levels so high to do all that she continues to do, Marlene said, “Life is about choices for all of us. And I’ve been blessed with good health. Being involved and participating for as long as you can nourishes you.”

By Mary Wanser
Resident Community News

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