Thelma Pauline Good

Thelma Pauline Stephenson Prince Good, 100, was born December 13, 1919 to Emma Lou and Charles Stephenson in Nampa, at the home of Clarence and Lillian King who were Thelma’s grandparents on her mother’s side. Mom had six sisters and four brothers. She was the 4th child and when she got old enough her specific job was to do all the ironing. The kids all loved to play in the irrigation canals and were quite the dare devils.
   She attended Caldwell Schools, but in her senior year she went to work helping to get Christmas trees, and when she returned, Caldwell would not let her back in school, so she ended up graduating from Nampa.
   Mom worked at Quasty’s in Caldwell Our Dad, Harry (Dutch) Prince was a football and basketball player at the College of Idaho when they met. Mom lived on Canyon Hill by the water tank and Dad would walk her home every night. Quite the walk.
   They married in Caldwell, and soon moved to California. Dad served overseas in WWII, Mom worked at Douglas Aircraft. Mom said she liked her job. She was like Rosie the Riveter, while another lady held a block of wood on one side of the aircraft “skin”, Mom would do the drilling. She had to quit due to her pregnancy with Sandy, who arrived in 1943 in Long Beach, California. Dad was wounded and Mom and Sandy took train rides to go see him. Mom said that was either in Louisiana or Mississippi. He was also in a hospital in Pasadena. Mom said the Servicemen were always so nice to her. Her son Larry was born in 1946 in Santa Monica, Ca.
   Her next and very favorite job was working for Ruby and Ray Hicks at their dry cleaners in Beverly Hills. She met many movie stars to include Betty Hutton, who she said was a “wild one”, Shirley Temple, John Agar and Fred McMurray.
   Mom was quite the seamstress, making many beautiful dresses for herself. She made costumes for Sandy’s tap dancing and ballet programs. A few of these items are in Sandy’s closet. She made shirts and a bath robe for Larry, and she made him a stuffed horse’s head, which he still has.
   In 1956, we moved to Caldwell, so Dad could help Mom’s dad and brother at Stephenson’s Floor Covering. Mom worked in the Idaho Department Store, in the office at Kit Manufacturing and then Idaho Meat Packers. Dad joined the Post Office in Caldwell. Mom and Dad later divorced.
   Mom married Donald Gene Good in 1968 and they moved to California for Don’s work with Fleetwood.
    They both took up golf and that became her biggest enjoyment. They lived in a beautiful condo that overlooked a golf course. Don had to travel a lot for his work, and that gave Mom lots of time to practice golf. She took a number of lessons over the years and became an excellent golfer.
She was very proud of her “holes-in-one” and has the trophies to prove it. They even took a golf cruise in which they played a number of beautiful courses.
   They enjoyed traveling together to Spain, Scotland and Switzerland. They also enjoyed living close to the coast with the beautiful weather and scenery.
   Mom continued on with her sewing making all her golf skirts. She took classes to learn how to reupholster furniture, and she hung her own wallpaper, and did macrame, and made a quilt. She also made a beautiful beaded lampshade. She did beautiful needlepoint that decorated her home, unfortunately she did not get her last one finished. She always had a perfectly clean house, but did not like to cook. Sure was a good thing that Don liked to cook.
   When they retired back to Nampa, their home was on two acres, including lots of fruit trees and a garden. Don took care of the out of doors projects, but Mom canned lots of fruits and jams.
   They had a beautiful motor home and would go to Casa Grande, Arizona every winter. Don would be ready to come back and Mom would want to stay just a little bit longer….to play golf of course. They also took their motor home to New Meadows for a few days of golf. They also went to the Oregon Coast and enjoyed a vacation there with Sandy and John.

A few of Mom’s favorites things were: Oreos, neapolitan ice cream every night, lemon pie and any thing chocolate. She loved bright flowers and watching the birds in her backyard. She enjoyed celebrating her 100th birthday last December with family and wonderful neighbors. She led an active life playing golf into her 90’s. After she quit playing golf, she watched it on TV and even knew some of the golfers.
   Thelma is survived by her daughter, Sandy Straight and John Lilly of Caldwell, her son Larry Prince and Cheryl of Nampa, step-daughters Julie Sweet and Wally of Vale, Oregon and Linda Damitz of Silverton, OR; her grandchildren Tracy Phillips, Jennifer Prince and Nicole McMichael and their families.
   She was preceded in death by her husband Donald G. Good and a grandson, Tony Prince.
   We would like to give a special Thank You to Autumn Wind for the excellent care they gave our Mom for the last six weeks. Also, a special Thank You to Breanna Pegram for caring for her Great Gramma ten days around the clock. And to daughter Tracy Phillips for being there to hold my hand.
   Celebration of Life for Thelma will be at a later date.
   

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Thelma Pauline Good, please visit our floral store.