Lilly A.H.      Goosman

Highly Accomplished

Newtown Resident

Lilly A.H. Goosman, 87, died surrounded by her family on August 3. Born Lilly Amalie Hansen on October 3, 1919, in Port Chester, N.Y., she was the first daughter of John P.T. and Lilly Hansen. Moving to Newtown in 1935, she graduated with the Newtown High School Class of 1937, and Henry Abbott Technical School as a licensed practical nurse in 1976.

She married the late Thomas Goosman in 1940. From 1945 through 1968 they owned and operated Tommy’s Service Station in Monroe.

Throughout her life she was very active in many aspects of Newtown. She was an organizing member and first president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the United Fire Company of Botsford, and an active member of Congregation Adath Israel Synagogue. She organized the Lights On for Polio with the March of Dimes and was instrumental in getting the Salk vaccine to Newtown and immunizing all of the school children. She was a Red Cross swimming and life saving instructor who taught many children to love swimming. Mrs Goosman was instrumental in bringing Planning and Zoning laws to town and served five years as a member of that commission.

She was a founding member of the Newtown Ambulance Association and later became an EMT and one of the first female members of the Ambulance Driver Corps. For many years she was a health history nurse for Red Cross Blood Mobiles. She also was a founding member of Planned Parenthood in Newtown at a time when the meetings had to be held in secret.

Mrs Goosman also was a teachers’ aide with special education and a volunteer and swimming instructor for the state Special Olympics. She was a member of the first Charter Revision Commission, and she was a member of Newtown Business and Professional Women and in 1990 received the Woman of the Year Award.

In 1975 she became a Justice of the Peace and officiated at numerous weddings.

Mrs Goosman is survived by her daughter Lisa of Newtown, with whom she made her home; her son Sherman and his wife, Nancy, of Fairfield; granddaughter Rachel and her husband, Jerry, of Cheshire; grandson John and his wife, Kim, of Fairfield; great-granddaughters Alexis and Jordan; her sister Grete and her husband, John, of East Hampton; and nephews John of Merriam, Kan., Greg of East Hampton, and their families. She was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas; son Richard; and daughter-in-law Anita.

A period of mourning will be observed at the Goosman home in Newtown.

Services were held August 5 at the Abraham L. Green and Son Funeral Home, Fairfield. Burial followed at Loyalty Cemetery, Fairfield.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut, 405 Main Street, Danbury CT 06810.

The Newtown Bee        August 10, 2007