Kim Goben was born on November 15, 1961 to James and Wini Goben. She attended Bloomington High School and later Lincoln College where she earned an Associate in Arts Degree in 1981. After leaving Lincoln, Kim continued on to Illinois State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983.
In the years before her death, Kim spent a great deal of time researching her family’s history, compiling numerous documents regarding her ancestors and relatives, as well as a tentative timeline of the Goben family’s history. The work she did in looking into her family’s ancestry will enable future generations of Gobens and their relatives to find links to their past.
Many of the documents in the Goben Family Collection pertain directly to Kim Goben and her immediate family, while the rest are items that she compiled regarding her ancestry, including her distant relatives’ birth and death certificates, wedding announcements, and newspaper articles.