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 Above: Eleanor in 1981, one year before her death. Left: Eleanor around 1930. |
Eleanor Goodenough (1910 - 1982)
Eleanor Goodenough (pronounced GOOD-know) was born on February 25, 1910, in a section
of Detroit called Indian Village. Her parents were Luman Webster Goodenough and Eliza
Wing Noble. As a child, she attended Miss Neuman's school in Detroit, and was later sent
away to a boarding school in the east. As well as being homesick, she disliked school, so she
returned home.
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Eleanor loved the outdoors. She was a superb horsewoman and even played polo. She was very close to her father, with whom she shared many interests such as horseback riding, gardening, and country living. However, she was not close to her mother. Her relationships with her siblings were much like her relationships with her parents; she was close to her brother (Daniel Webster Goodenough; 1911 - 1975) but she was not close to her sister (Elizabeth Noble Goodenough; 1908 - 1972). |
Eleanor refused to be a debutante, which was quite a revolution in her society and class. It
was expected for a girl to have a "coming out" party at age eighteen, but Eleanor did not
have one.
| She graduated from Wheaton College (Norton, Massachusetts) in 1933. Her major was Art History and her minor was English and American Literature. The portrait on the right was done in 1932 by a classmate of hers. In September of 1935, she married William John Spicer. They had five children, one of which is my mother, Eleanor. However, it was an unhappy marriage, and in 1963 they divorced. Eleanor lived for her home and 220 acre farm which adjoined her girlhood home, Longacres. She painted prolifically in her early years, but as the marriage became increasingly unhappy, her painting ceased. She did not sell her works. |
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Eleanor died in June of 1982. She is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, MI.
The Goodenough Art Gallery:
| The Life of Eleanor Goodenough | The Art of Eleanor Goodenough |