Billie P. "Midge" Goldsworthy

BILLIE PAULINE "MIDGE" GOLDSWORTHY Graveside services for Billie Pauline "Midge" Goldsworthy, a longtime Cortez resident, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 27 at Summit Ridge Cemetery. Visitation has been set for Thursday morning from 10 a.m. until Noon at Ertel Memorial Chapel. For William Alfred and Sarah (Garrison) High, August 23, 1921 brought into their family the fourth of six children. Named Billie Pauline, she was always known by her nickname, Midge. Midge was born in Nauvoo, Mo. In that area, on a farm, she lived and attended grades 1 2 at New Hope, a one room school house. Her teacher was Florence Bonham. Hard economic times and no child labor laws found Midge and her three older siblings working summers alongside their mother at John Freeman's tomato canning factory where, in order to pack tomatoes, on box crates she stood. April 1, 1929 she and her family began a 17 day trek to Colorado, settling in Cortez on south Chestnut. She attended Cortez Schools. Guy "Junior" Pickens and Midge were married in 1938. To that union was born Sherry Guylene. Before World War II the union was dissolved. In 1942, Midge moved to San Diego, Calif. and worked for Consolidated Aircraft on the B-24 Bomber. On her return to Cortez, Midge worked as a telephone operator and clerk at Henry Wilson's pharmacy. At Wilson Drug, she met a young pharmacist from Telluride, Howard "Pat" Goldsworthy. They married July 5, 1948 and to that union were born Patricia, George, Susan and Robert. The family lived in Dolores 1953-1962 then to Longmont, Colo. they relocated. On her 44th birthday, she began working for Ball Brother's Corp., retiring in 1986. A 40 year member of First Christian Church (now Life Bridge), Midge served over 25 years in the nursery department. The last nine years she again lived in the Cortez area, seven of those with her son, George. Midge had a delightful sense of humor and kept everyone in the family laughing. Surviving Midge are her brother, Arlis High; children, Sherry Wallace, Patty Davis, George, Susan and Robert Goldsworthy; grandchildren, Stephen Wallace and wife, Vicki, Tim Wallace and wife, Mitzi, Jay Wallace and wife, Amanda, Kathleen Rayburn and husband, Joe, Lara Davis, Jessica Joiner and husband, Steve, and Pauline, Robert and Catherine Goldsworthy. She is also survived by 13 great grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews; and by John Davis of Golden, Colo., and Eva Goldsworthy of Longmont, Colo.