Obituary of Betty Jean Tuck Goode

Betty took leave of this world early Monday morning, August 17th, following her beloved husband Norris peacefully into the night. She too had made peace with her life and inevitable death, placing her faith in the Lord and ever after. She was preceded in death by her parents Earl and Elma as well as Norris, her loving husband of 63 years as well as two older siblings, Clarence Tuck and Arlene Tuck Meador. She is survived by two sons, Jeff and Steve and their respective spouses, Mary Beth and Courtney as well as three grandchildren, Beckett, Leilani and Turner. She was born March 22nd, 1933 into a large farming family in Moneta. Square in the middle of the brood, she worked side by side with her siblings tending to the chores and all things required to make a farm function. As she always said to me, “We were poor but never knew it.” Her point was that in her mind her life was rich in love and substance making all else superfluous. Mom was the consummate giver never expecting really anything in return. In fact she gave to a fault, often foregoing her own needs. She started her “giving” self at a young age, working with younger youth at her home church, Radford Baptist. From there as a young adult with my father at her side they continued youth ministry that would eventually find them at the helm of Bedford Baptist’s Youth Program that had nearing 100 participants in the later 1960s/early to mid 1970s. However, she was not all about total giving just yet. She in her earlier years did find time to participate in many beauty pageants as well as the Beta Epsilon Phi sorority. Several times over she was crowned “Miss Altavista” along with Queen of various festivals including Uncle Billy’s Day which is still a tradition in Altavista. Short, petite with dark skin and striking blue eyes, there was a time in her life where she made many a man swoon. Her naive, child-like innocence only added to the allure. But as she once told me, Norris was the one who captured her heart. And the rest as they say is history. In her early adulthood, in between rearing two young boys and heading a vibrant youth group, she honed her love of crafts and baking. In part she was inspired by her older sister, Arlene, with whom she carried on a competitive relationship through the years; one always trying to out-bake the other. Cakes, cookies, pies. Man oh man. As many of my cousins can attest, every Sunday at Tuck farm was loaded with more food, fun and companionship than should be allowed. She would take that friendly competition with her sister and inevitably parlay that into her life’s work in the form of Goode’s Country Kitchen and Catering. But she still had some growing to do yet. When I was growing up, County (Country) Fairs were one of the summer highlights to a kid in the 1970s. Rides, games, cotton candy, crash-em up derbies and of course the canned and baked goods being judged to be considered the best in Bedford County. I remember our basement at one point probably housed well over 300 jars of pickled this and jammed that. Mom was absolutely prolific. Several years ago when I was cleaning out their house in Bedford, I had to go through a pile of those bygone days, throwing out jars and jars of ancient canned goods. I bet I threw out 200 blue ribbons, a testament to her prowess. She was competitive for sure, but she also was pretty good at what she did. By the mid to early 1970s she was being asked to bake and cater for folks and she turned our basement into an official catering outfit. But it would not be long before her obligations and work had outgrown the basement. In 1979 she bought the old Fork and Spoon (originally the Turnpike Restaurant) and rebranded it Goode’s Country Kitchen and Catering. With this mom defined her legacy and name. In her heyday, everyone used her for their festivities, weddings, seasonal parties and the such. There is no telling how many wedding cakes she decorated or ham biscuits she buttered. Goode’s Country Kitchen and Catering ran for 30 years. By any restaurants standard that is a very long time. It ran primarily because of the fierce drive of my mother and her dogged determination to bring her idea of ministry to the masses. By now her beauty queen days were long behind her and she would stay squarely focused on what she perceived to be her gift: bringing joy and happiness to all by feeding them. Simple on the surface, but my mother was so much more than that simple little country girl turned baker and cook. Far from it. She fancied herself a social worker even when she did not know what that was. She understood psychology better than most PhD trained practitioners. She moved fluidly through hundreds and hundreds of peoples lives day in and day out for 30 years. Her restaurant was as much a gathering place for folks to eat as it was to vent, chat, gossip and plot. Along the way she sat with politicians including state and US senators/Representatives, religious leaders, local law enforcement and even Shaquille O’Neal (though admittedly she did not really know he was a famous basketball player). She’d bend their ear. They would bend hers. If a politician really wanted to know the mood of the electorate, what the common man was thinking, then Betty Goode was your operative on the ground. And don’t think for a moment they didn’t enjoy her point of view. Conversations. Advice. Perspective. If you were down or depressed, mom was there. If you had great news but no one in your life to tell, mom was there. If you were having marital troubles, she was there. If you were down on your luck, needed a buck, some food because you couldn’t afford rent, a place to work, a place to sleep or just a hug, Mom was there. You see mom for such a simple little country girl was rather multi-faceted and complex. In her own way, she did what many an educated man cannot and that is connect. Connect with anyone and everyone. Rich, poor, black, white, educated, uneducated. She knew no boundaries and in doing so fulfilled her primary mission in life: be the perfect disciple to Christ’s teachings. I said this just a few short months ago about my father and I will say it again here. I’ve never met two purer souls who better embodied the teachings of Jesus Christ than my parents. We would all do well if we could be half as much. And so with the passing of my mother just four short months after my father, their circle is again complete.