Ellen Goforth Montero

Ellen Goforth Montero died on Friday January 20, 2012. She was the widow of the late Dr. Enrique Montero Born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, on September 24, 1924, she was the daughter of the late John Whitesides Goforth and Estelle Logan Goforth. Ellen graduated as salutatorian from Mount Vernon High School in Rutherford County, North Carolina (1941), then obtained an Associates Degree From Mars Hill College in 1944, followed by Graduate Nurse and B.S. in Nursing Degrees from Duke University (1947), when she won the Bagby Award in pediatrics as the best senior nurse. At Duke, she met a graduate medical student from Ecuador, Enrique Montero, whom she married in 1946. They were married for 65 years until Enrique’s death in 2011. A registered nurse, she taught nursing at the Medical College of Georgia until her family moved to Griffin, Georgia in December, 1953, where she was a homemaker, and both nurse and office administrator in Enrique’s medical practice until both retired in 1986. In retirement, Ellen was a screening nurse for the Griffin-Spalding County School System. Ellen was active as a Red Cross volunteer, member and Past President of the Utility Club and charter member of the Griffin Spalding Historical Society, and librarian in the First Baptist Church Library. She was predeceased by her elder sister, Margaret Goforth McCarter. Survivors include her son, Kenneth Montero and his wife, Leslie Montero, and their daughter, Rebecca Montero; her daughter, Suzanne Montero Severino and her husband, Mark, and their four children (Courtney Severino Vito, her husband, Mike, and their son Gavin; Kristen Severino, her husband Todd Smith and their son Brady: Mark Severino and his wife Jen; and Bryan Severino); her younger sister Carolyn Goforth Erwin; and her late sister’s son, W. Eugene McCarter, Jr., and his wife Annettte McCarter and his two sons, Matthew and Mason McCarter.

Memorial services for Mrs. Ellen Goforth Montero will be conducted on Sunday January 22, 2012, at 2:00 PM in the Chapel of Haisten McCullough Funeral Home. Dr. Bill Hardee will officiate. The family will receive friends on Sunday at the funeral home from 1:00 PM until the service hour and again following the memorial service.