Linda Goodman

Mary Alice Kemery (April 9, 1925 – October 21, 1995), popularly known as Linda Goodman, was a New York Times bestselling American astrologer and poet. She wrote the first astrology book to make the New York Times Best Seller list.

Early life and background Linda Goodman was born in Morgantown, West Virginia. Although she never revealed her year of birth, swearing even her father to silence, it emerged posthumously that she was born in 1925. According to data collector Frank C. Clifford, Linda was born in Morgantown on April 9, 1925, at 6:05 a.m. Clifford cites Linda's birth certificate as his source. Her father's name was Robert Stratton Kemery; her mother's maiden name was Mazie McBee. By her own account, Goodman was born in her maternal grandparents' house on 115 Kingwood Street. She attended and graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1943 aged 18 years.

Career While working in radio, she met her second husband, Sam Goodman, and took his last name. Goodman made a breakthrough in 1957 hosting a WJAS radio show in Pittsburgh called Love Letters from Linda. It was for the radio show she assumed the name 'Linda'. Each show consisted of her reading letters written between soldiers and their loved ones. Each letter was punctuated with a popular song of the day.

She began her career writing for newspapers in West Virginia and Kentucky. She later wrote speeches for American civil rights leader Whitney Young, who served for several years as president of the National Urban League. It was followed by Linda Goodman's Love Signs, which also made the New York Times Best Seller list and set an industry record with $2.25 million being paid for the paperback rights, the highest for a non-fiction book at that time.

Gooberz, begun in 1967, is a long poem riddled with myriad occult references and symbolism. It is also a thinly veiled autobiography, which explores two of her significant romantic relationships: her marriage to William Snyder and her love affair with marine biologist Robert Brewer. The book surveys her ideas on reincarnation, karma, love, and miracles.

Personal life Linda Goodman first married John DeVore (1948), then William H. Snyder (1949) and finally Sam Goodman (1955). She was mother to four children: Sally and William (Bill) Snyder from her first marriage, and Jill and Michael Goodman from her second marriage. She also had at least one other child, a daughter who died in infancy.

Death Goodman made Cripple Creek, Colorado, her home during the latter part of her life. She first lived in a small Victorian house on Carr Street ("the little crooked house on the crooked little street") and later moved to a newer home on the outskirts of the main town. Both homes still boast her spiritually themed stained-glass windows. The house on Carr Street was later a bed and breakfast. She died in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 21, 1995, at the age of 70, from complications of diabetes.

Crystal Bush, a businesswoman from Ireland, befriended Goodman at the end of her life and obtained the publicity rights to the astrologer's name at her death. Bush then published the book Linda Goodman's Relationship Signs.

Beliefs In addition to her belief in astrology Goodman also advocated for immortality which she told her followers could be achieved through practices such as vegetarianism, taking nutritional supplements, moisturizers and fresh air, while avoiding smoking and sexual promiscuity and imagining your cells spiraling backwards.

Goodman's books arrived in the 1960s and 70s at a time when Astrology was experiencing a swell of popularity and crossing over into the mainstream.