Clara Jo (Dunn) Goode, 98, passed away at her home in Connelly Springs, North Carolina, on February 21, 2026. She is survived by her daughters, J’Mel Goode, Jane Goode and Meg Goode, as well as their respective husbands/significant others, Alan Thompson, David Hobart and Gary Schreck. She was preceded in death by her husband, William (Bill) Edward Goode.

Jo was born on November 23, 1927, in LaRue, Texas, the daughter of Frankie Rowland Dunn and Melvin Dunn. She attended school in Rural Shade, Van, and Athens, Texas, before continuing her education at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, and Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree at the age of seventeen. While in Denton, she met and married Bill Goode, an officer in the United States Army Air Force and the love of her life. Together, they moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where she received a Master’s Degree in bacteriology from the University of Illinois.

Jo and Bill eventually settled in Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania, with their young family. After getting her children through their early years, Jo returned to a teaching career she had begun in Illinois. For many years, she taught seventh grade science at Neshaminy Middle School. Her fellow teachers and, most especially, her students provided her with great joy. For a number of years, she and the teachers on her team took their more than 100 students on a weekend camping trip which, for many of her students, was their first experience with camping.

She was also an avid traveler, whose trips tended to take her to national parks and wildlife refuges across the United States, Canada, Europe and such far-flung places as Australia, New Guinea, the Galapagos Islands, Kenya, Peru, India and many others. These trips were a reflection of her passion for adventure and the outdoors, and her love and respect for nature and wildlife – a love she instilled in both her children and students.

Jo led an extraordinary and varied life and we will miss her deeply.

She will be interred, privately, at La Rue Cemetery in Texas. Donations in her memory may be made to Best Friends Animal Society or Ironwood Pig Sanctuary.

Heritage Funeral Service and Crematory in Valdese is assisting the family.