April 2, 1934 - November 7, 2021 Beautiful, brainy, multi-talented blue-eyed blondes aren’t all that easy to come by, and we have just lost one of the best. Erni Brown Goldman has gone onto her next chapter; peacefully and painlessly, in her beloved on Fire Island home. She leaves behind those from her childhood Southern family; her nephew Richard Allen Graham (Cindy) and her great nieces and nephews, Shanna Graham Cash, Danny Graham, Kelly Graham Hughes, Andrew Bradley Graham and Jessica Graham Huffman, as well as, a large scattered array of devoted friends from a lifetime passionately lived. Erni was blessed with so many talents. She could transform a mess of Littlenecks from the Great South Bay into the sexiest stuffed clams no one could ever get enough of, raise a lowly supermarket chicken to 5-star splendor . . . and stir, not shake, a vodka martini 007 would kill for. You could take part in these delights if you were lucky enough to be living in one of the bi-coastal San Francisco/ NY Big Apple/ Fire Island zip codes that Erni and her late husband, Alan Goldman, kept open in those exciting decades. And, oh, how guests marveled at how her gardens grew…. from rooftop renditions in the cities to her Fire Island backyard … once a barren patch of sullen and stubborn sand that Erni magically made flourish into lush masses of roses, lilies, nasturtium, and more. Even a suicidal fig tree she coaxed back to life year after year; inviting birds from all over which became yet another of Erni’s passions which she maintained to enjoy, right up to her last rose. But, of her many passions the theatrically gifted Erni most proudly shared her time in the performing arts…from her first trip to Carnegie Hall with her Westminster College choir to solo cabaret in San Francisco…but that was well after many other assorted gigs, such as, taking her bow while appearing with Howard Keel in “KISMET’.

Long ago, Erni had learned enough from her early on-stage experiences to earn the title-on-the-door "Owner" of her own lively experimental theater in New York City. Back then the more she taught the more she loved what she was teaching; performing music and lyrics, so she started writing her own. She wrote wonderfully wise and whimsical children’s songs good enough to be performed at the Cathedral School of St. John’s the Divine in New York City. The blue-eyed-blonde beauty never took it for granted, giving back when and wherever she could, as she is well remembered for her services as president of the local Northern California Screen Actors Guild in San Francisco.

Erni summed up all those spectacular years living year-round in her home on Ontario Street in Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island; sharing her smile everywhere she went. The smile … the person - Erni meant so many different things to so many people … you can feel the presence of her memory when walking and talking on the shores of Erni’s beloved Fire Island, especially at sunset. For those who would like to help the memory of Erni live on please consider donating in her name to The Audubon Society. www.act.audubon.org/a/donate