Appeal letter writer's pen falls silent

Longtime Carson City resident Marie Lowy Goodrich, who frequently wrote letters to the Nevada Appeal, died Monday at her home the day before her 95th birthday.

Goodrich moved to Carson City in 1959 and worked in the front office of the Carson City Post Office for 16 years, from 1963 until 1980 when she retired.

She wrote dozens of letters to the Appeal, most detailing events affecting those around her. In 2002, Goodrich was recognized as the Appeal's longest subscriber and received a year's free subscription.

In her last letter, which appeared in the newspaper on Aug. 29, she opened with "So often when I've written you I sort of felt it might be my final letter," before describing the celebration for the sixth anniversary of Carson Valley Residential Care Center.

Born Dec. 9, 1908, in Manhattan, Goodrich was a twin. She was 10 minutes older than sister Catherine Lowy Freeman, who died in 2001.

During World War II, Goodrich worked at North American Aviation in El Monte. She moved to Carson City with her second husband Lee Goodrich, who died in 1965.

Goodrich went to work at the old Carson-Tahoe Hospital when she first arrived in Carson City and then took a job with the U.S. Post Office in what is now the Laxalt Building downtown.

After she retired from the U.S. Post Office in 1980 and worked part time in several restaurants and motels in Carson City and lived on her own until 1996 when she moved into Carson Plaza.

"I loved the window work and giving service," Goodrich said of her time at the post office in a letter appearing in the May 28, 1980, edition of the Appeal.

Goodrich donated her body for medical research at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her twin sister Cathy did the same thing saying, "I'm going to college when I die."