Goodson was born in Pensacola, Florida, the youngest of seven sisters, six of whom survived to adulthood. Her father and mother both played the piano.[2] Her father was a deacon at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.[1]
All of the daughters in her family received musical training, with the sole intention that they would perform in church.[1] Goodson noted that the blues were banned in her house.[3] However, Ida and her sisters Mabel, Della, Sadie, Edna, and Wilhelmina (better known as Billie Pierce) all subsequently had careers in blues or jazz.[4] The Preservation Hall Jazz Band often had one of the Goodson sisters playing keyboards. Ida played the piano accompanying silent films and at dances.[1]
The Florida Folk Archive released a recording made at the Florida Folk Festival in 1980, containing a duet between Ida and Sadie. Ida received a Florida Folk Heritage Award in 1987.[2][4]
A 2002 stage show, The Goodson Sisters: Pensacola's Greatest Gift to Jazz, focused on Ida, Wilhelmina, and Sadie. The PBS video Wild Women Don't Have the Blues includes rare footage of Bessie Smith and Ida, her one-time accompanist. The music journalist Chris Heim wrote in the Chicago Tribune that "sprightly blues and gospel performer Ida Goodson—the scene stealer of the film—gives a stunning exhibition of the intimate connection between gospel and blues when she takes the song "Precious Lord" from a rich, slow gospel opening to a rollicking boogie-woogie conclusion."[5]
In her senior years, Goodson played the organ at several churches in Pensacola.[1][4] The album Ida Goodson: Pensacola Piano—Florida Gulf Blues, Jazz, and Gospel was released by the Florida Folklife Program.[4]
