Judith Ellen “Judie” Gossard
September 15, 1939, Sunday, March 19, 2023
Judith (Judie) Ellen McConnell Gossard was born on September 15, 1939 at her family home in Anderson, Indiana to Paul Eugene and Helen (Reddin) McConnell. She passed away of a massive heart attack on Sunday evening March 19, 2023 while enroute by ambulance to Riverview Hospital.
Judie was a graduate of Sheridan High School and attended Indiana Central for two years. Our Mom liked to say that from the time she could walk she was outside playing and exploring until it was time to come home for dinner. Her love for anything outdoors served her very well when she married her beloved sweetheart Max Eugene (Gene) Gossard Jr. on June 29, 1956. He passed away on December 23, 2006.
They enjoyed fifty and a half years of a lifetime filled with a very special love and created a true sense of family who adored, loved and cherished them until their very last breath and will forever more. Our Mom and Dad had a true marital and business partnership in everything they did from the day they were married. As a newlywed she worked at Indiana Bell in downtown Indianapolis before having her first child and only daughter, daughter Julia (Julie) K. Gossard.
Our Mom started assisting our Dad in every single way possible on the family farm from the time they were first married and continued to do so after our Dad’s sudden passing on December 23, 2006 assisting her only son Max (Alan) Gossard. Mom was always the true epitome of what a farmwife should be. In 1971 she started substituting for her husband’s school bus route when the bus drivers purchased their own school buses and were independent contractors. She worked as the accountant and bookkeeper for the family owned Gossard Standard Service Station. She worked for many summers for teacher and swimming Coach Mr. Chuck Hise at Marion-Adams High School with their summer swim program.
After selling the family owned Gossard Standard Service Station she worked as the accountant and bookkeeper for the Standard Oil Fertilizer Plant which her husband operated. She worked as the accountant and bookkeeper for the family owned Gossard Fertilizer Custom Application. She became a long time, very beloved and permanent school bus driver for Marion-Adams Schools which eventually changed to Sheridan Schools. She drove for over thirty two years.
She, her husband Gene, daughter Julie and son Alan had, and currently have (for Julie) over 168 years of serving Sheridan, Westfield and the M.S.D of Pike Township students. It was and is a family tradition to love and help children. She was always a Marion Township Elementary School Room Mom for her daughter and son’s classrooms planning the yearly holiday parties, other special school festivities and contributing anything that was needed throughout the years.
She would always accompany her children’s classes on their field trips. One of the more memorable field trips was when her daughter Julie’s Kindergarten class each got to go up and fly over Sheridan and the surrounding vicinity in a four person plane where take off was from the local Biddle Airport and the plane was flown by Bob Apple. She was amazed that every one of the Kindergartners happily took their turns, boarded the plane and went up very willingly. Mom’s loyal participation and active involvement continued along with her husband Gene and son Alan for four more years while her daughter Julie was at Indiana State University. They faithfully came to every home football and basketball game to see their daughter perform with the Indiana State Sparkettes, and of course watch the games too. Since Larry Bird played his entire college basketball career during Julie’s time at Indiana State, I always teased them that I thought he and the I.S.U. Basketball team just might have become their number one focus.
My family and paternal grandparents would always rent a hotel room in Greencastle just to watch all of the away basketball games on T.V., and then make the two hour trek back home the same night for work the next day. The home football games were made extra-memorable because my Mom, Dad and brother Alan would always drive the motorhome down on Friday after work and school to spend the lovely fall season at the Terre Haute KOA.
Indiana State sports weren’t their only participation or involvement because that extended to all special parent and family events while Julie was an active member and officer of the Delta Gamma Sorority. Our parents always took my Sparkette friends and Delta Gamma sorority sisters under their wing for those whose parents couldn’t attend the games typically due to distance by loading them up in the motorhome and including them in dining out or cookouts with the family.
Many of my collegiate friends will tell me to this very day that they always loved and adored my family and wished that they could have had them as their own family also and felt like they were just that. During her daughter Julie’s forty-two year and counting M.S.D. of Pike Township teaching career she would help Julie and her second grade cherubs create things for special learning projects, fun holiday projects and gifts for their parents.
She loved to read classic children’s books to the always captive audiences. She accompanied the second grade classes on field trips, attended the Miss Gossard’s annual Thanksgiving Feasts often attending while bringing her grandsons Grant and Garrett. She would also bring them to College Park’s end of the year Field Days, special school convocations and field trips. She enjoyed all of them but would often reminisce when the second grade cherubs went to Beef and Boards to see the production of Beauty and the Beast and her youngest grandson Garrett was frightened by his new surroundings and watched the performance from under the table. As her two grandsons, Grant and Garrett got older they would come with their beloved Mamaw to College Park where they all attained hero status and each year’s second grade cherubs idolized them.
When her daughter taught at Eagle Creek, Judie and her husband Gene, invited the classes up to take a tour of their grain and cattle farm for a very special hands on learning experience. The second grade cherubs got to enjoy getting up in the tractors and combine. She and her husband then had a cook out for the classes to enjoy for lunch. All of the students’ parents volunteered to attend the Gossard Farm field trips and many would get up in the implements as well.
She would surprise her daughter’s second grade classes when she was in the area and it was always like an A List Celebrity had arrived! The students would always clap excitedly, squeal with delight and envelop her with big heartfelt hugs. Her daughter Julie would always tease her, that after those surprise classroom visits she would be called Mrs. Gossard instead of Miss Gossard for days, and would be asked a million or more times when Mrs. Gossard could visit again.
She was always pleased and extremely touched when her former students from her school bus route would call or just surprise her with fun visits and special surprises each year. She loved watching them grow and continue their school successes at the college level or in their daily lives. She enjoyed being invited and attending their high school open houses. She cherished each and every one of those visits and invitations. She was always so very proud of all the students that rode her school bus each year and supported them in any way that she could or was asked to.
Our Mom was an extra-ordinary cook and baker learning the best tips, advice and practice very early in her marriage from her Mother-In-Law Mary Rachael Gossard. Traditional dinners and cookouts with delectable food, lots of love, laughing, games, and happiness was always had by all. Our Mom and Dad were always inviting the family to partake in family dinners. Their love of hosting family extended to the entire family tree of the Gossard’s from all over the United States.
Many Gossard families planned their yearly summer vacations around attending the annual Gossard Family reunion, which they hosted yearly for over twenty-five years. The Gossard family reunions would include a pitch in dinner with badminton, croquet and swimming. So many families attended that Mom and Dad made large tables for the annual event and would borrow all of the chairs from the local Kercheval Funeral Home. Memorable times were had by all.
Our Mom was absolutely elated and in seventh heaven when her two grandsons Grant and Garrett were born. For the longest time she would tease and say that she thought her only grandchild would be the families beloved Irish Setter Brandy. She finally achieved Mamaw status at the age of fifty and enjoyed that cherished role for thirty-three years. No words can ever adequately convey the magnitude of love that she had for her two grandsons Grant and Garrett. She and her husband Gene could never have or see them enough that is for sure. Weekend overnights were standard routine and summers were spent with their paternal grandparents, Mamaw and Dadaw.
Vacations in the family motorhome traveling all over the United States was something they and the entire family enjoyed and treasured. The boys were taught how to drive a golf cart, fish, chop wood, build campfires, roast marshmallows, swim and attained their National Parks Junior Park Ranger badges from many of the United States National Parks. They enjoyed taking a tour of, and inside the Hoover Dam and its inner workings, hard hats and all just before the Hoover Dam had to end that educational offering due to terrorism events happening in our country. She was absolutely in awe and thrilled when the next generation of three male Gossard great grandsons arrived within two years, six months and twenty three days of each other. She always looked forward and longed for visits from Max, Joe, and Tucker. The best, most joy filled, and memorable times of late, was when her living room was filled with the three of them and getting to hold and shower them with love and affection. Like her two grandsons Grant and Garrett she could never see Max, Joe, and Tucker as often as she would have liked to.
The love and pride that she had for her two grandsons and three great grandsons was immeasurable. Times during the Pandemic were extra-special when her daughter was teaching remotely from home on Zoom and Judie would make special appearances to compliment the students with lots of positive reinforcement. So, they got to meet Mrs. Gossard too. The special and loving times for both of them continued the past year when her daughter Julie was diagnosed with Stage Three Colon Cancer. They both talked about how they were blessed beyond measure to spend 24 hours a day with each other and the last time that happened other than school and summer vacations was before her daughter Julie began Kindergarten. She and her daughter Julie were very fortunate to have each other and lived together for decades, especially after losing her husband and Julie’s father suddenly on December 23, 2006. They made a great team, did everything together and have been best buddies too. Julie and her Mom always told each other numerous times a day how much they loved one another and her Mom would always say, “I love you more and I don’t know what I would do without you.” Her daughter would always reply that, “she loved her more” and her Mom would say,” that is not possible” but Julie finally got to tell her for the very last time before she passed that indeed she loved her more. Her Mom would always tell her that no daughter should ever have to do all of the things that she did, caring for and loving her, and Julie would always reply that she could never ever live long enough to ever repay her with all of the nurturing, endless love, and care that she had given to her throughout her entire lifetime. To say that she was the very best Mom ever is truly, truly an understatement. Our Mom enjoyed a lifetime of stellar health and glowing Doctors reports.
On her very last Drs. appointment at Sheridan Family Physicians on March 2, 2023 one of the nurses kindly commented to Julie, that even when your Mom isn’t feeling her very best she is always, always so sweet. While Julie was battling cancer all of her many dear friends would come to visit and spend time with she and her Mom. They would comment each and every visit how wonderful, sweet, kind, loving and awesome that Mom was. In addition to that, they always were saying how youthful, pretty and fit that she looked for her age. That was always our beloved Mom.
She loved to cross stitch, needlepoint and macramé. She won numerous awards at the Boone County 4-H Fair Open Show and the Indiana State Fair. She enjoyed any indoor and outdoor type of games. She was the Queen of playing croquet and loved any type of board or card games as well. She was partial to playing marbles on a specially made game board made by her husband Gene. She was a master Scrabble player. She loved and completed the daily crossword in ink from the Indianapolis Star newspaper and weekly People magazine in super speedy fashion, completing her last ones in March. She enjoyed Word Searches and all types of Brain games and puzzles.
The Game Channel was always one of her favorites, giving all of the competing contestants on Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud and a plethora of others, a real run for their money. Any movie mysteries were never a real challenge for her, as she had them all figured out, typically within the first half hour and was always spot on. Our Mom and Dad always provided from the time that we were born their daughter Julie, son Alan and grandsons Grant and Garrett with an absolutely unimaginable and truly extra-ordinary life filled with endless love, nurturing, support and modeling as the best role models and mentors that you could ever, ever dream of having.
Their monumental impact will continue to influence each and every one of us until our very last days. They may be gone for now but will never, ever be forgotten by any of us. They were, and are now again, truly a match made in heaven. Judie is survived by her only daughter, Julia (Julie) Kay Gossard; her only son, Max Alan (Alan) Gossard (Susan); her oldest grandson, Grant Alan Gossard (Michelle); her youngest grandson,Garrett Matthew Gossard (Brittany); her first born great grandson, Max (2 years and 11 months); her middle great grandson, Joe (7 months); her youngest great grandson, Tucker (11 days shy of 5 months); and her last surviving sibling and sister Joyce McConnell Small. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews, including her most cherished nephew Billy Joe Small and his wife Kathy Waitt Small who have been so loving, devoted, kind, and helpful since Julie has been unable to drive the past year. She was preceded in death by her husband, Max Eugene (Gene) Gossard Jr.; her father in law, Max Eugene Gossard Sr.; her mother in law, Mary Rachael Gossard; her father, Paul Eugene McConnell; her mother, Helen Reddin McConnell; her five siblings, sister, Barbara McConnell Dwiggans, brother, Darrell McConnell, infant brother, Jackie McConnell, brother, Richard (Dick) McConnell, sister, Paula McConnell Tidwell, and several nieces and nephew.
Services will be held at 7:00 PM on Friday evening, March 24, 2023 at Kercheval Funeral Home, 306 E. 10th Street, Sheridan, Indiana, with visitation from 3:00 PM until the time of service. Reverend John Meunier will be officiating. Judie will be laid to rest at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning, March 25, 2023, at Crown View Cemetery in Sheridan, Indiana. Memorial contributions can be made, if so desired, to the Sheridan United Methodist Church, 207 East Second Street, Sheridan, Indiana 46069, where Judie was a 67 year member.