Nick Goodman

Paul Nicholas “Nick” Goodman passed away very unexpectedly at Limestone Medical Center, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at age 54.

Visitation will be held from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 17, 2022, in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in the Central Baptist Church of Thornton, with Reverend Tracy Sims officiating.   Burial will follow in Cobb Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Chad Brooks, Garrett Crane, Josh Lenamond, Cody Crane, Casen Crane, and Peyton Baize.

Honorary pallbearers will be Joe Towers, Doc Massey, Bobby Recknor, Gary Schilling, Dave Hildebrandt, Zackary Goodman, McKenzie Masters, and Michael Gilliam.

Nick was born January 16, 1968, in Mexia to Paul Patrick Goodman and Sandra Kay (Parker) Goodman.   He grew up in Rockwall through his early school years, and the family moved to Thornton when he was high school age.   He played corner back - #21 – on the Groesbeck Goats’ football team, and participated in FFA, showing chickens and steers.  He graduated in the class of 1986, and then attended a trade school in Houston in air conditioning.

He moved back and worked for Walker Air Conditioning in Groesbeck, and then he and his brother Jody bought the company and established Goodman Air Conditioning and Electrical.   They have worked hard at keeping the community cool ever since, seen in their red or later white trucks.  Nick and Jody worked together and shared everything together for the past 53 years. 

Nick loved hunting and fishing.  He hunted elk and mule deer (or anything else with 4 legs) in Colorado every winter, always bringing meat home for the freezer.  He loved fishing year round, (whether at Lake Limestone or Richland Chambers or other water) for catfish, crappie, jug fishing, noodling, and deep-sea fishing, also stocking the freezer with his catch.

For the past twenty-four and one-half years, his life partner, and more recently his wife, has been Natasha Petersen Goodman. 

Nick loved cooking for big groups and would only use the fish he had caught for fish fries (not store-bought fish and not frozen potatoes.)   He and Jody were well-known and greatly appreciated by the Groesbeck community for their willingness to prepare meals for many fund-raisers for those with cancer, surgery, injuries, or other financial hardships.   They were the ones people sought when a fund-raiser was needed, and they enlisted help from the rest of the family, their employees, and anyone else willing to help.   When Nick was cooking, his family and employees would also be willing.

Nick and Natasha have prepared the $10,000 school fund-raising dinners for 9 times while they had 4 children in Groesbeck High School, which included preparing 500 steaks for each occasion.   They have gone from church services in Thornton to prepare meals at the Church on the Rock in Groesbeck, cooked for the Limestone County Fair Association, cooked each year for the Thornton Masonic Lodge, catered weddings and birthdays and served meals for many other groups.  

Nick loved all of his family; he dearly loved the grandbabies and taught the oldest to call him “Big Daddy.”  He loved his cows and though he was allergic to grass and the outdoors, he went to check on them each day in winter and as often as he could during air-conditioning repair season, feeding them and walking among them, and petting the bulls.

Nick was a member of the Masonic Lodge #486 of Thornton.   He was a great influence on those who saw him live a life of “serving” others.  He was a member of the Central Baptist Church of Thornton, and he lived his life for the Lord each day. 

Nick was preceded in death by his brother, Jerry Ray McDaniel.

He is survived by his parents, Pat and Annette Goodman and his mother, Sandra Parker; his wife, Natasha Goodman; his kids, Harlie Masters and her husband McKenzie Masters, Rylie Goodman, Zack Goodman, and Bralie Goodman; and his grandchildren, Rhyatt Masters and Waylon Masters.   He is also survived by his mother-in-law, Florita Petersen, and his siblings:  Jody and wife Larissa Goodman, Heath Goodman, Lance McDaniel and Crystal Watson, Sheldon McDaniel, and Jeff and Arlene Johnson; and nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Thornton Masonic Lodge #486, P.O. Box 373, Thornton, TX  76687.