A retired mail handler with the U.S. Postal Service and a resident of Baton Rouge, he died Thursday, March 3, 2011, at LTAC Hospital of Feliciana. He was 94, a U.S. Army veteran of World War II and a native of Natchez, Miss. Visiting at Elm Grove Baptist Church on Tuesday, March 8, from 9 a.m. until religious service at 11 a.m., conducted by the Rev. Erroll K. Domingue. Interment in Port Hudson National Cemetery. He is survived by daughters, Willie Mae Lathan and Patricia Dunn, of Baton Rouge, Thelemese Porter and husband Robert, Zachary, Elaria Simms and husband George, Mason, Ohio, Melissa Bolden and husband James, of Holly Springs, N.C., and Jacquelin Watson, of Athens, Ga.; sons, Tyrone Willis, Lubbock, Texas, and Mark Gooden, Baton Rouge; a godchild, Mary Booden Rogers, Natchez; 14 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ernestine Gooden; parents, three brothers a sister and three grandchildren. He was a licensed minister. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Rev Willie Gooden, please visit our floral store.