Stefani Brooks Goddard, a singer and songwriter who was a mainstay in Buffalo’s acoustic music circles in the 1980s and 1990s and music coordinator for day care centers, died Nov. 4 in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Amherst, after a short illness. She was 69.
Born in Brooklyn, she overcame objections and got her mother’s approval to go to innovative John Dewey High School in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, although it required a subway ride.
Her classmates included filmmaker Spike Lee, comedian Larry Charles and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Donald Margulies. In high school, she began playing the guitar, writing songs and performing them.
She came to Buffalo to attend what is now SUNY Buffalo State University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education.
A regular performer in coffeehouses and acoustic music concerts, she was a founding member of the Buffalo Friends of Folk Music and became musical director of Peopleart/Bflo, an arts and music venue, in the early 1980s, presenting regional touring artists as well as local performers.
She led the Peopleart musical series for 10 years with her husband and on-stage partner David Goddard, a postal worker known as The Singing Mailman.
In a feature story on songwriters for Gusto in 1982, then-reporter Margaret Sullivan remarked on Ms. Brooks Goddard’s black beret and her rich, poignant voice.
She released a CD of her songs, “Best Intentions,” in 2018.
She also worked as a coordinator for the Lexington Food Co-op and as a special education teacher for at-risk youth.
She was music coordinator for the Westminster Presbyterian Day Care Center and children’s music consultant for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo, writing and performing many songs for youngsters. She retired in 2010.
She was a member of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Western New York and enjoyed cooking, crocheting, photography and gardening.
Survivors also include a daughter, Leanna Goddard; and a son, Samuel Goddard.
A celebration of her life waswill be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, 695 Elmwood Ave.
Email [email protected].
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