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Goodhue falls while hiking near waterfall
By Jason Clayworth and Geoff Fein
Record-Herald Staff Writers
06/09/1999
Rebecca Goodhue was a person family and roommates described her [sic] as "everyone's friend." When she died last week after falling from a cliff in Washington, everyone lost, they said.
Goodhue, 22, graduated from Indianola High School in 1993. She was hiking in the Nooksack River Falls area near Bellingham, Wash., with her boyfriend on Thursday when she slipped from a cliff and was carried over a 100-foot waterfall, authorities said. Officials said she and her boyfriend Mike Lynch, a genetics student at Iowa State University, were hiking in a restricted area when the fall occurred.
"They went around the cyclone (chain) fencing to a narrow ledge," Sgt. Larry Flynn, of the Whatcom County sherrif's office, said. "She lost her footing and fell over. . ."
Flynn said Goodhue was taking a picture when she fell. He said Lynch was able to retrieve her body from the water.
Flynn said resuscitation efforts failed. Goodhue died from blunt trauma caused by the initial fall.
"You don't want to be up there," Flynn said. "There are warning signs posted. . . it's too treacherous. The ledge gets spray from the falls. No one is supposed to be past the fence."
In May, Goodhue received her master's degree in genetics from Iowa State University. She had been living in Ames.
Angie Knoll, an education senior at Iowa State who was living with Goodhue, said she understood the temptation Goodhue faced when risking her life to take the photos. "She always wanted to be, to do her best," Knoll said. "I'm sure she was just trying to get the best picture she possibly could."
Knoll said Goodhue was "everyone's friend"--an energetic person who was "always enthusiastic."
"She could always make you laugh," Knoll said. "She was very well liked and extremely goal oriented."
Goodhue, who worked in the patent department at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., in Johnston, had, two days before her death, selected a frame for her master's degree certificate with her mother, Eve. "She was always such a bubbly person," Eve Goodhue said. "I think that's the best way to describe her. Bubbly."
Rebecca's father, Darrell Goodhue, a Warren County district court judge, said she was always involved in extra-curricular activities. In high school, Goodhue participated in FFA, drama and debate. In 1993 she was the Warren County Fair Queen and won the Miss Personality Plus award in the 1993 Iowa State Fair Queen Pageant.