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Obituary: Joanne W. Goodhart

Joanne Woodward Goodhart, 84, of Shelter Island and New York, died Sunday, October 9, 2011 at Mount Saint Joseph, a holistic care community in Waterville, Maine, where she had been living since May.

Joanne and her husband William M. Goodhart spent summers and weekends on Shelter Island beginning in 1966 and moved full-time to Shelter Island in 1989. She was a president of the Garden Club of Shelter Island, a member of Union Chapel’s Board of Trustees and a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club.

Joanne was the first woman to work in a TV network control room. She earned the distinction after Fred Waring discovered her in St. Joseph, Missouri, where she was writing, producing and delivering three radio programs for the popular station KFEQ. She joined the crew of the new Fred Waring Show as a production assistant in 1948. A last-minute opening put her in front of the TV cameras of the nationally broadcast “Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians” musical variety show on CBS, performing the show’s single commercial for GE refrigerators.

With no time to rehearse, Joanne delivered the five-minute live commercial flawlessly. It became a regular addition to her responsibilities. She was then asked to perform on the show several times in the backup chorus and on various specials. It was on this show she met her future husband, the late William M. Goodhart. the Broadway playwright, author of “Generation” and Hollywood screenwriter who died in 1999.

Joanne stayed with CBS as an associate director for 15 years, quietly revolutionizing their human resources policies by establishing their first maternity leave policy in 1958. She would require maternity leave herself four times.

During her time with CBS, Joanne worked on many television programs, including “The Morning Show” hosted by Walter Cronkite, “To Tell The Truth,” “Person to Person” hosted by Edward R. Murrow, “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite,” “Captain Kangaroo,” “As the World Turns,” “Guiding Light” and “Search for Tomorrow.”

In 1976, Joanne began work as associate director of the long-running soap opera, “The Edge of Night.” In 1977, she began directing episodes and by the early 1980s she was a primary substitute for John Sedgwick, the show’s regular director. She received an Emmy Award for technical excellence in a daytime serial drama for the 1979-1980 season. In 1984, Joanne moved to California where her husband had found it necessary to be located. She continued to work as an associate director on NBC’s California-based show, “Santa Barbara,” until 1988, when she returned to New York. Before retiring to her home on Shelter Island, she worked once again on the “Guiding Light,” where she was nominated for her second Emmy for outstanding drama series: directing team in 1990.

Joanne is survived by three daughters, Eliza G. Denoeux, Amy Goodhart Rayburn and Sarah C. Goodhart, and four grandchildren, Genievieve Denoeux, Gerard Denoeux, William F. Rayburn and Edward G. Rayburn.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 29 at 10:15 a.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel, 230 East 90th Street, New York City. Memorial contributions may be to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.