Before coming to Detroit, Bill Goodwin’s father was from coal mining country in Herrin, Illinois and his mother worked on a tobacco farm in Princeton, Kentucky. His parents got married in the late 1920s.

Enticed by the economic opportunities the auto industry in Detroit offered, they moved to Michigan before 1929, the start of the Great Depression.

“Bailing hay and mining coal might not have been too exciting for them,” Goodwin said.

Both of his parents eventually became autoworkers. Goodwin’s father worked at Ford, motivated by Henry Ford’s offer to pay employees five dollars a day.

“He said ‘Mr. Ford absolutely got his money’s worth out of you for that $5,’” Goodwin recalled.

After arriving in Michigan, Goodwin’s mother was a housewife. Not long after settling in Detroit, she caught a severe case of tuberculosis, staying in TB wards for a few years. After she recovered, she got a job at the Packard Plant and worked in auto factories for the rest of her career. She retired from Fleetwood Cadillac after spending 35 years there.

“She would’ve stayed at Fleetwood Cadillac until this very moment if she could’ve,” he said.

She loved her job at the Cadillac factory so much that after she died, Goodwin proposed adding the iconic Cadillac crest to her headstone, which overlooks her family’s farm in Princeton, Kentucky. His family members agreed it would be a fitting tribute.

Goodwin lives in Shelby Township.

This story is part of our Destination Detroit initiative, which through a series of interviews shares the rich history of the people who have shaped Southeast Michigan.

Watch more stories at onedetroitpbs.org/destinationdetroit.