Alsa Marie Gooch

Alsa Marie Duncan Gooch was born December 17, 1922, the only child of Thomas Osborn Duncan and Lena Mae Beard Duncan. Alsa was born and raised in Dallas, in Oak Cliff, graduating from Sunset High School in 1940. She married Marvin Gooch, Jr., also a Sunset graduate, on September 5, 1942. Marvin enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps a month later, and served as an Air Force fighter pilot in the Pacific during World War II, returning to Alsa and their home in Dallas in April 1946. Alsa left her career as an executive secretary to become a full-time mother and homemaker in 1949. She and Marvin and their three children lived in Oak Cliff for many years, until Marvin’s career with the U.S. Postal Service took them to Waco in 1967, then to Amarillo, and to Miami, Florida, before their return to Dallas in 1974. Alsa became a real estate agent and sold property in the south Dallas suburbs for several years. She and Marvin were members of Cliff Temple Baptist Church and a senior choir, the Silver Serenaders. They moved to DeSoto in 1996. He passed away in 2003. Alsa is survived by her three children, Susan Conway (Jack Howell), Nancy Bresnahan (John) and Tom Gooch (Lynn); six grandchildren, Bryan Chandler (Donna), Jay Holloway, Joseph Holloway (Lauren), Jeffrey Holloway, Katie Moore (Chris), and Joel Bresnahan; and eight great grandchildren, Landon Holloway, Harper Holloway, Addison Holloway, Aiden Moore, Ryan Moore, Michael Moore, Haylee Moore, and Tyler Banker. Alsa attended countless children’s baseball and football games, ballet classes, piano lessons. She sewed costumes and Easter outfits. She played the piano, sometimes at church. She made terrific chocolate meringue pie and strawberry shortcake. She learned to square dance and play the ukulele. She made friends with strangers. She adopted stray animals. She had a priceless sense of humor. May she rest in peace.