Jodie was born on January 19, 1939, in Craven County, NC. He grew up to have a long and proud career as a United States Marine. He retired as a Master Gunnery Sergeant from the USMC in 1984. He went on to have another long career owning his own lawn and landscape business before settling into retirement.
Jodie Godley is predeceased by his parents (Edna Butler and Joe Godley). He is also predeceased by his wife, Sharon Godley.
He is survived by his daughters: Jamie G. Sturges of Tokyo, Japan, and Carrie Bedell (Jason) of Virginia Beach, VA; granddaughters Chloe (15), Roxy (13), and Kinley (9); brother Oscar Godley (Carol) and sister Essie Gray (John) of Hampton; cousins, nieces, and nephews. He is also survived by his longtime love Betty Buswell of Fountain City, WI.
Of all the roles in Jodie’s life, his favorite role was “Papa”. He loved spending time with his granddaughters. Whether it was watching dance routines over and over, being a backup dancer in one of the dance routines, playing school, learning the newest Taylor Swift news, or just watching TV together, he lived for his granddaughters.
Jodie instilled many values in his family but the most important ones were loyalty, kindness, and generosity.
While Jodie was 85 years old, he seemed invincible. The family joke was that he would be the first person to live forever. We are deeply saddened by his death and will miss him forever. Please don’t take any day for granted. His death was sudden and unexpected. We are thankful for the years that he lived with family so that we spent time together every day. Our plea for others is to take time to make the phone call, sit and listen to the story, or share a meal. Don’t miss the opportunities to show love to those around you.
We cannot express enough gratitude to the teams of Virginia Beach EMS and Fire Department, Sentara Leigh Emergency Room, Nightingale Flight Team, Sentara Norfolk General OR, and VICU. They went above and beyond to do all they could to help Jodie and care for his family. We were blown away by the compassion and professionalism every step of the way.
Services will be held at Smith and Williams Funeral Home located at 4889 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. The visitation will be on Monday, February 12th from 6-8pm. The Celebration of Life will be on Tuesday, February 13th at 2pm.
We ask that attendants at both the visitation and funeral come dressed casually–jeans are welcome! Jodie hated a stuffy suit and spent his days as comfy and casual as possible.
In lieu of flowers, please participate in a random act of kindness and/or donate to one of the following organizations: Virginia Beach Rescue Squad https://vbvrs.org or AidNOW https://www.aidnow.org
