Hawke's Bay Today farewells the woman who named us

Kris Claman and Cathy Goodwin holding a picture of their mother Margaret Goodwin. Photo / Warren Buckland

For the past 20 years, the paper Margaret Goodwin named has been delivered across Hawke's Bay.

Sadly, Margaret passed away last Saturday, less than a week before the 20th anniversary of the paper in which she played a small but significant role in forming.

In 1999 Goodwin won a competition to name the paper being formed out of the merger of Napier's Daily Telegraph and the Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune.

She picked Hawke's Bay Today.

Her daughters, Cathy Goodwin and Kris Claman said Margaret was a great mum, neighbour and citizen.

"She loved gardening, and painting, and she was involved in lots of different kinds of craft work," Cathy Goodwin said.

"Education was important to her," Claman said.

"She had to leave school when she was 15 to help on the family farm because that was in the middle of the war."

"So we were really encouraged to get a good education."

"She used to read the paper every night.

"It would be spread out on the lounge floor, and she would get down on the floor and read it every night."

Margaret Goodwin, the woman who named Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Supplied

"She appreciated being able to find out what was happening in the world."

In her later years Margaret developed dementia, but the sisters said she still got the paper and when she was unable to read it anymore she would look at the pictures.

"She liked to paint the photos in the paper," Claman said.

"There was one photo of a police dog and his handler, which she painted and she framed herself and she delivered to the police station," she said.

"She wrote a letter to the police station saying 'oh, I just thought the dog was so handsome, and the policeman isn't too bad either!"

The sisters only found out recently about the role Margaret played in naming the paper.

"She didn't really mention it, she was quite humble," Goodwin said.

Claman said her best guess as to the inspiration behind the name was that she liked thinking she was reading a paper and finding out what was happening in the world today.

"I can only guess that might have been the case."

Margaret also spent much of her time giving back to the community.

She delivered meals on wheels for 23 years, stopping when she was in her 80s, and collected for the food bank until she could not longer lift the cans.

She also worked with people who had brain damage or had been in accidents, doing craft such as weaving and painting with them.

"She was very happy to give her time," Claman said.