Nellie Godbee had intended to apply for a job with Royal Typewriter when a friend told her that WEAS-AM, an Atlanta radio station, needed a receptionist.
Mrs. Godbee changed directions and then spent nearly 40 years in the radio business, becoming station manager for WTJH-AM of East Point.
"She was a pioneer woman in the radio business because not many rose to management," said Jimmy Godbee, her son from Carrollton. "She loved it and got to meet a lot of the country and western singers who were famous back then."
Nellie Beatrice "Miss Bea" Moody Godbee, who had battled colon cancer for years, died Saturday from complications at her home in Carrollton. She was 79. A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Carrollton. Burial will take place in the cemetery at Whooping Creek Primitive Baptist Church. Martin & Hightower Heritage Chapel of Carrollton is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Godbee was ideal for the radio world because she had a deep radiant voice. It didn't hurt that she enunciated and pronounced her words well, too.
"Her voice was deep but not harsh," her son said.
Her career began at Decatur's WEAS-AM, which later became WGUN-AM and in the early 1960s adopted the "Big GUN" slogan. She worked there nearly 10 years as a receptionist, a job that allowed her to meet and greet people. Her next stop was WTJH-AM, a station in East Point, where she spent 22 years, 12 of them as station manager.
Mrs. Godbee was born in Alabama's Randolph County. Her mother died when she was 3. She moved to the Atlanta area to live with godparents because her father couldn't provide for six children. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1950. She retired from the radio business in 1985, the same year that Joseph Kyle Godbee, her husband for 30 years, died.
Her son, an only child, built a house in Carrollton for his parents and, once in retirement, Mrs. Godbee moved there from Forest Park. She worked as an apartment complex manager for several years.
Additional survivors include three brothers, John W. Moody of Stockbridge, Coleman Moody of Prattville, Ala., and Ray Moody of Graham, Ala.; and two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
About the Author
