Dressed as Santa, Nina Goolsby spread Christmas cheer all around Oxford for years.
Written and Researched by Leslie Criss | Photographs Provided by John Cofield
“Mom’s Santa was a way of getting the Christmas spirit out … She was amazing, always promoting what was good in our area.” — Rita Vasilyev
Longtime Oxonian Nina Goolsby embodied the spirit of community, volunteerism, professionalism and Christmas every single day of the year. A newspaper woman by profession, Goolsby landed her first — and only — newspaper job by accident.
“Her sister had accepted a job at the Oxford Eagle when Curtis Mullins was editor,” said Rita Vasilyev, one of Goolsby’s two daughters. “Mom walked into the office to tell him her sister had gotten sick and would not be able to take the job. He looked at Mom and said, ‘How about you?’ And she took the job on the spot.”
Goolsby was in her 20s when she went to work at the Eagle and continued there until she was well into her 80s.
“I think she did every job at the newspaper but run the press,” Vasilyev said. “Mom had no journalism training, it was strictly on-the-job training.”
She was known for her daily column, Nina’s Notebook, and she worked as the Eagle’s editor for many years.
“Even after she retired and was in a wheelchair, she would call the paper daily or get someone to roll her to the offices to check on things and see what was going on in the community,” her daughter said.
Anyone familiar with the business side of newspapers knows Christmastime is the biggest time of year for trying to sell advertising — the financial life blood of a newspaper. Goolsby not only called and visited every business in Oxford, she did it in style. She did it as Santa Claus.
In her bright red Santa suit, she’d grab a photographer and have him take a picture of her with business owners on whom she called to buy an ad for the paper. And she’d walk around the Square in the suit.
“When kids came up to her, she was Santa Claus,” Vasilyev said, laughing. “That suit hung in her office year-round.”
Goolsby’s Santa suit is now in the possession of Joey Vasilyev, one of her six grandchildren.
Santa was not Goolsby’s only assumed persona. At times when Oxford was in need of a spring cleaning or sprucing up, Goolsby became Filthy McBiggs, walking around with a broom and mop, selling ads for the spring cleaning issue of the paper. She encouraged folks to keep their city clean.
“Mom’s Santa was a way of getting the Christmas spirit out as well as making revenue for the newspaper,” her daughter said. “She was amazing, always promoting what was good in our area.”
Goolsby died in 2008 at the age of 88.
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