Joanne (Goodman) Hilburn

Joanne Goodman Hilburn, 78, passed away peacefully on Thursday, August 17, 2023.

A funeral service will be held on Monday, August 21 at 11:00 a.m. at First Methodist Church in Dublin with Rev. Thad Haygood and Rev. Tom Carruth officiating. The family will receive friends from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the church sanctuary. 

Joanne Goodman was born on May 4, 1945, and spent her early years in southern California before moving to Florida for high school and college at Florida State University, where she met her husband, James Vaden (Jim) Hilburn, of 40 years.

A free-spirited California girl at heart, Joanne was happiest with the wind in her hair and her toes in the sand. She had an immediately recognizable, infectious laugh. She was a voracious reader and lover of the arts. Joanne had a passion for education and dedicated herself to learning. Her first career was teaching high school English. In her second career, she established the GED attainment program at Mohawk Industries and taught there until retirement.

Joanne was an active member of the Dublin-Laurens community. She served as the president of the Dublin Service League and the Women's Study Club and was active in the Dublin-Laurens Arts Council, the Oconee Regional Library Board and the FUMC Key Class.

She was preceded in death by her husband Jim. She is survived by her daughter, Kate Hilburn Allgood (Lanny) of Atlanta; her son, James Vaden “Jimmy" Hilburn, Jr. (Raef Harrison) of Los Angeles; a grandson, Sam Allgood, and a granddaughter, Parks Allgood, both of Atlanta.

Honorary pallbearers are Billy Brown, Ben Hall, Fain Powel, Jimmy Allgood, Bill Jones, Jack Harris, Dick Newhouse and Bobby Alpert.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Emory’s Integrated Memory Care (IMC) via the link http://together.emory.edu/IMCareClinic or to Emory University, Office of Gifts, 1762 Clifton Road NE #2400, Atlanta, GA 30322.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Joanne (Goodman) Hilburn, please visit our floral store.