BURTON, Michigan
— During an era of racial segregation, Elizabeth Woods' best friend was black.
During World War II, she was sought for her truck-driving skills. And when a school counselor discouraged her daughter from pursuing a "man's" career, she reacted with fury.
"She was way ahead of her time," said daughter Lea Ann Davis of Pensacola, Fla.
Woods, 89, died Dec. 25 in the Burton home of her granddaughter, Michelle Goforth.Born Nov. 12, 1919, to Joe and Flora Dunaway, Woods was raised with six siblings in Hall, Tenn.
"She lived right across the street from a black sharecropping family," Davis said. "One girl across the street, they called each other sisters."
The two friends were so close they'd share their chewed gum.
"She taught me that everyone was equal, there was no difference between any races," Davis said. "Her parents were that way, too."
During World War II, Woods transported soldiers and cargo on military bases as a Civil Service employee, who backed trucks under low aircraft wings.
"There were men in this group, too, but they considered her the best," Davis said.
Woods and her co-worker were both introduced to their husbands on a double blind date with the Flint men, who were stationed at the Air Force base.
She married Wilford Cole on Jan. 22, 1943.
"My mother had a personality nobody could resist," Davis said of her mother.
"She smiled constantly, she was good to everybody, she really cared about people."
The couple later moved to Michigan.
While attending Northwestern High School in Flint, Davis had her sights set on archaeology, but her counselor advised her to become a nurse or teacher instead of a "man's field."
"My mother was so enraged, she called him up and told him off," Davis said.
"She was quite outspoken, always stood up for people if she thought somebody was giving somebody a raw deal, even strangers."
When Woods' husband died in 1967, she sold their home and bought a house with an apartment to rent out.
She worked as a corsetier by day — fitting ladies for undergarments — for Federals, The Fair and Lane Bryant, and cleaned portable classroom units for the Flint Board of Education in the evenings.
Woods never lost her sharp mind and independent spirit, said her family.
When Davis moved to Germany, Woods flew — usually alone — to visit her daughter's family each year and read her newspaper regularly, cover to cover, said Goforth, with whom Woods lived for the past eight years.
She was three times widowed, having married Chester Tolliver in 1971 and Raymond Woods in 1980.
In recent years, Woods found it harder to get out after suffering several serious falls but contributed regularly to Shawn Baptist Church, said Shawn's pastor, the Rev. Raymond Cocke.
"It was like losing a mother," Cocke said.
Funeral services were held Dec. 30 for Woods.
Along with Davis, Michelle and husband John Goforth, Woods is survived by granddaughters Terri Barker and husband Travis of Florida and Christl Tanner of Florida; 3 great grandchildren, Tasha, Cohen and Kadence and brother, Robert Dunaway of Ohio.
Along with her parents and husband, Woods was preceded in death by her son, Wilford I. Cole Jr.