Cleone Amelia Marie Godwin

It is with deeply felt sadness that we announce the passing of Cleone Godwin on Sunday, September 1, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta, at the age of 78 years. Cleone will be missed greatly by all her family and friends.

Cleone is survived by her husband of 57 years Gordon (Dale) Godwin, her two daughters and their spouses, Christine Marie Godwin (Kenneth (Ken) Ross Foster) and Cheryll Maureen Godwin-Abel (Gerald (Jerry) Francis Abel), and her older brother Wayne William (Bill) Murphy. Cleone was predeceased by her parents Patrick Joseph Murphy (1982) and Fredrica Mary Klancher (2015).

Cleone was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Fiercely independent and with no fear, she set out on her own when she was 19 years old to work at Canadian Pacific Air Lines in Prince George, BC. She met Dale in 1966 in Prince George when he was stationed at the Canadian Forces Base general surveillance radar station Baldy Hughes. She would follow Dale through his career in the military, making each new posting an adventure and a new home for Christine (born in Kapuskasing, Ontario) and Cheryll (born in Arnprior, Ontario). Her determination to remain independent meant she always found work wherever she went. Cleone built her reputation as a skilled and hard worker, and glowing letters of recommendation followed her from place to place. She had to be resilient and resourceful in her career, which led to some unique situations. Through Dale’s time at the Royal Military College in Kingson, Cleone worked at the Millhaven maximum security penitentiary in inmate accounts, where she was not intimidated in the least with having to walk through the cell blocks to get to her office. While raising two teenage girls on the military base Medley at Cold Lake, Alberta, she worked as a bookkeeper, an accountant, and an office manager at vehicle dealerships and taught accounting at the local college. Her fondness for Cold Lake was built from memories of working hard, long hours and the life-long friendships she made.

Cleone and Dale lived in Cold Lake three different times, interspersed with a tour at the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland, where Dale attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS), and a posting to the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. 

In all places she was able to exercise her passion for the outdoors, walking for hours and exploring new areas with her daughters in tow, often getting blissfully lost. In Cold Lake, she was able to grow her passion for horses, supporting her daughters as they learned to ride and learned the responsibility of owning and caring for a horse.

In her later years and as her daughters grew and married, she experienced her more physically challenging family adventures. The first family hike was in 2003 on the West Coast Trail, BC, followed by the Chilkoot Trail on the boundary of BC and Alaska two years later, and the Inca Trail in Peru two years after that. She was so proud to be physically strong enough to do these hikes, which the family also knew as her stubbornness to never quit. No mountain too high, she just kept taking one step forward (well, most times). Jerry and Cheryll moved to Australia in 2008, and with her family, Cleone hiked in Queensland, Australia, and in New Zealand, and stayed at an old sheep shearer’s cabin while on a horseback riding adventure in Tasmania. Her and Dale also found their own adventures traveling to eco-lodges in Cost Rica. Then in 2019 Cleone and Dale went with Chris and Ken to the Galapagos Islands, a place she always dreamed of going, where she experienced the vast and unique wildlife both in the sea and on land.

Cleone’s love of history, culture, nature and wildlife took her around the world. But at home, it was her love of horses that sustained her. She would spend countless hours at the barn, caring for her horse Lily, and then, when Lily passed, Bobbi. Her family knew it was the horses that often took care of her and are forever grateful for the friendship and kindness she knew throughout her many years at the barn. Her life revolved around her family and her horses, and everyone in her life has been blessed to know and love her. She will forever be missed, and forever remembered for her strength of spirit, her devotion to her family, her love and empathy for animals and all things wild, and her enduring kindness to all around her.

My wife… my mother… my sister… my friend. You always chose your own way, and often not the easy path. You cared for and loved all of those around you with a fierceness that would leave you exhausted. You were easily brought to tears at the memory of a beloved cat, or dog, or the horses that brought you so many happy hours of riding and freedom. A devoted friend, and once made, a friend for life. Your greatest love was for your family, who you held close in every waking moment. We love you. We miss you so much. You are with us, always.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

-Robert Frost-

“…O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

-Percy Shelley-

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