Winifred G. Sams' Obituary
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Born Winifred Mary Goodrich in Lisle, New York on August 4, 1923, our beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother passed away quietly in her sleep in the early hours of July 2, 2025, at the age of 101.
Although she lived and passed without distinction as most would define it, this woman was known to her many progeny as truly remarkable, particularly as each considers how his or her life has been impacted over the years by hers. Her beginnings were, admittedly, humble and perhaps even unimpressive, raised by a single mom and loving grandparents in Killawog and Binghamton New York. After graduating from high school in a private, Christian school in North Carolina, where she also attended her first two years of college, she met her future husband (Horace Sams, Jr.), married and began the family that so cherishes, remembers, and honors her life today. Although she was a substitute teacher, and pursued other ventures and responsibilities outside the home, she considered being a housewife one of the highest callings in her life. The fact that her burial and gravesite services will be attended by so many of the family members to whom she devoted her life -- from distances as far away as Vancouver, Canada, Texas, New England and North Carolina -- speaks to her dedication to this calling in a way that words cannot express. She was indeed a remarkable person, loved deeply by those who had the privilege of knowing her. She will be missed greatly and as the matriarch of our family will leave behind a hole that no other will ever fill.
But lest anyone considers hers to have been an average or pedestrian life, it is with a genuine sense of pride that her family can affirm a life that was anything but. Her life may have begun humbly on a farm in upstate New York, but it certainly did not end there. Her willingness to attend a high school hundreds of miles from home was but a first glimpse into the experiences of travel and constant broadening of her horizons that became, for her at least, commonplace. Her husband felt called into ministry as a teenager, and eventually served as a pastor, missionary, and U.S. Army chaplain with his wife Winnie constantly by his side, not only here in America (Florida, Georgia, NYC, Colorado, California and Alabama), but also in Palestine (before it became a Jewish State), Germany, Vietnam and Thailand.
However, the greatest part of Winifred Sams’s enduring legacy cannot be summarized by numbers -- “6” children, “16” grandchildren, “17” great-grandchildren, or even “101” years of life -- rather primarily by her character. While contributing to a digital birthday greeting celebrating her 100th birthday, her various family members described her as “an inspiration,” “kind,” “sweet,” “mentally sharp,” ”wise,” “supportive,” “a guiding light,” “strong and resilient,” “caring,” “selfless,” “steadfast, “gracious,” “Christlike,” “good-natured,” and “godly,” a mentor and “example of Christian life.” That’s quite an impressive eulogy, but certainly well deserved.
Winifred Mary Goodrich Sams went to be with her Lord and Savior on July 2, 2025, but it's the impact of those 101 years after August 4, 1923 that we who remain will remember and cherish always.
Visitation is Friday, July 18, at 1:00 PM, at Memorial Park Funeral Home. The service will begin at 1:30 PM with interment to follow in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Obituary lovingly crafted by Jerry Sams
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