WORLD WAR I VETERAN 'HAP' GOODMAN DEAD AT 105

Nobody remembers how Elves L. "Hap" Goodman got his nickname. They do remember how proud he was of serving in the U.S. Army during World War I and how generous he was.

Goodman, believed to be Missouri's oldest World War I veteran, died Friday at the Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. He was 105. (See complete obituary on Page 4B.)

Goodman spent his boyhood in Malden before joining the Army in 1916. When war broke out a year later, he was a drill sergeant assigned to train troops on Long Island. He showed them how to fire 3-inch guns and worked with the horses and caissons that pulled the big guns.

When his men were ready to ship out for Europe, he wanted to go with them, but the Army wouldn't let him.

He appealed to the four-star general at his base. In a 1991 Southeast Missourian story about veterans, Goodman recalled the general's response: "You're more beneficial to the U.S. Army here training these boys than if you were over on the front line."

He would train men there and in Oklahoma for four years.

One of Goodman's sons, James "Bob" Goodman of Scott City, says his father always wished he could have fought. "He always talked about WWI. He really wanted to go and do that."

Three of Goodman's grandsons have held high-ranking positions in the military, a feat Bob Goodman ascribes to his father's strong belief in the military.

After leaving the Army, Goodman was a fireman on the Cotton Belt Railroad for nearly 40 years and owned Goodman Lumber Co. and a coal yard. After his wife, Ethel, died in 1963, he spent much of his time working in his two-acre garden. He kept that garden until he was 97.

He gave away most of his crop.

"He had a little International tractor," his son said. "When we sold the place, I kept his tractor. I'm going to keep that forever."

Any of his six children could always go to him for a loan, his son said. "He was easy come, easy go."

Goodman's longevity often brought him attention around Veterans Day. But on his 100th birthday he also was honored as the oldest man drawing a Southern Pacific Railroad pension.

Ken Lipps, administrator of the Veterans Home, said Goodman never missed a bingo game until recently. "Until a year ago he was quite active," Lipps said.

Goodman's death leaves Pertle Probst as the only World War I veteran remaining at the Veterans Home.