Catherine Marie Goodrum

Catherine Marie Goodrum (McCormack) was born on February 28, 1922 in Vicksburg, Mississippi to Rose Eleanor McCormack (Douat) and Joseph Xavier McCormack. She was the second child of eight. (four boys and four girls). Her parents were both deaf and her mother was also mute as it was called in the day. They suffered childhood illnesses causing the disabilities. She often commented that if not for family and the local parish they most certainly would not have survived the great depression.

She attended the St. Francis Xavier Academy for Girls and Carr Central High School in Vicksburg. Then she moved to Orange County California with an Aunt and Uncle in 1938. There she attended and graduated from Fullerton High School in 1941. Following secretarial school, she went to work for the Army Air Corps for the duration of World War II and shortly after as a typist. She had to type formal orders and they had to be error free. The paper was of such poor quality and they had to use carbon paper for six copies so erasures were not feasible. The typewriters were manual and copy machines had not yet been invented.

In 1946, She married Earl Goodrum who also was from Mississippi. In 1947 they had a son, Tony. They resided in Santa Ana very close to what is now the Civic Center. He had a small automobile business there. In 1948, a man came into his office wanting to sell a car as he was leaving the state. He also had a house to sell in Newport Beach. So that is how Catherine came to live in Newport Beach on San Bernardino Ave.

In 1956, Earl sold the car business that had by now moved to Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa and Catherine went to work at the new electronics plant run by Hughes Aircraft near Hoag Hospital. She worked there until 1972. Following a few years as an executive secretary for Dana Labs at Newport Center, she returned to Hughes at the Campus Dr. location until retirement in 1987.

Earl passed away in 1962. In 1966, after Tony graduated from Harbor High, she sold the house on San Bernardino and bought a triplex on 16th Place in Costa Mesa and moved there. She lived there until 2009 when she tried assisted living for about two years at the Newport Beach Plaza. Then moved back to 16th Place in 2011.

Active in retirement, she volunteered for many different things at St. Joachim Parish in Costa Mesa. She did everything from cleaning, to money counting, to Eucharistic minister. She also worked for many years helping with letter writing on behalf of the Missionaries of Charity.

Traveling widely, she visited Tony when he was living on Guam, and then continued to tour most of Asia. Touring a lot of the United States including Alaska, she also visited England, Ireland, and Wales; Italy; Israel, and took a cruise through the Panama Canal. After Tony moved to Hawaii in 1988, she was an annual visitor.

Catherine Marie Goodrum (McCormack) passed away on September 23, 2016 in Costa Mesa, California. She is survived by her son, Tony, of Newport Beach. She has at least 26 nieces and nephews and countless grandnieces and grandnephews. And in her last five years, her caregiver Christine Santiago.

Her favorite words are “Eat Dessert First”.