Mickey Newman

Mickey was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 22nd, 1930, the daughter of Laura Celia McCabe Duncan and Herbert Hadley Duncan. She was the first grandchild for both Duncans and McCabes, and was named for her maternal grandfather, Mickey, derived from Michael and for her paternal grandmother, Gene, derived from Eugenia. All her roots were Scottish, Irish, and English, with lore that there was a native American strain on the paternal side. She was disappointed when 23andMe informed us otherwise. Both parental clans were large; her generation enlarged them to another 25 or so. There were four McCabe aunts about whom she remarked often that she had lots of mothers. Her childhood years were spent among many of these aunts, uncles and cousins, particularly the McCabes in Shreveport, Many (pronounced Manny) and Cotton Valley, Louisiana. Two brothers were born, Herbert (Bub) five years later and Ed, seven. She was a second mother to them, loving them dearly.

In her freshman year of college at Louisiana Tech she met the man of almost unexpected dreams, Lowell Richard (Buzz) Newman, really her opposite. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm meets Young Gentleman of Sophistication, charm and wit who wooed her with the poetic greats and with his own eloquence and intellectual interests. She often remarked, “I’d never known anyone like him. He was different.” She was right about that. He cherished her all the days of his life. She was chosen the Dream Girl of his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, an honor in which she reveled. It was an indicator of how innocently loveable Mickey D (college nickname) was. Mickey and Buzz thoroughly enjoyed their college years together. She was one of those College “Miss Everythings” which was an unexpected surprise and joy. She well recognized Buzz was there for serious academics for he loved learning, but that he knew how to have a good time. She was there to get an academic degree, but of course as with most young women of that era who were not trained to be ambitious, she expected to accomplish her MRS. Mickey was well aware that this entire experience was an unexpected privilege. She had thought financial restraints would determine she would go to secretarial school. But the sheer will of her father determined all his children would go to college. She graduated with both the MRS and a Bachelor of Science in Business Education.

Mickey and Buzz married in September of 1952 and moved to Baton Rouge, where Buzz was already studying for a Master’s Degree in Government. She worked as a secretary, while at home she was his thesis typist. Unbelievably this young wife could not cook but learned on the fly. Her mother had not let her near the stove because one had blown up in her own face. That wasn’t going to happen to her Mickey. She never liked to cook, but she became an excellent and very particular one. Unfortunately, over the years she developed a rather sophisticated palate and demanded hot be hot and cold be cold to her last taste of food which had become a struggle as her tastebuds had begun to shift crazily. One daughter became an excellent cook and unlike her mother enjoys it. The other NOT.

The years at LSU were interrupted by the Korean War. Buzz, being the son of a career Army man elected to apply for admission to Naval OCS, rather than be drafted. And then their first child was a surprise twist. In 1953 Mickey became a Naval Officer’s wife and shortly after in 1954 a mother to Mickey Dee (named after her mother by her father). By year’s end this young northern Louisiana woman boarded her first plane alone with a 10-month-old baby to fly to San Francisco, spend the night in a hotel there, find her way to the port and board a transport ship to join Buzz in Sasebo, Japan, where he was stationed.

Thus began another privileged chapter. Mickey held wonderful memories of that time in their life, and was especially fond of the fun times at the Officer’s Club with the other Navy wives and the travel she and Buzz occasionally took with Dee and their Japanese housemaid Amisan in tow.

Upon their return to the states in 1956, Buzz began a long career in the telephone industry. Even before marriage Mickey had become the quintessential “behind every successful man is a good woman.” These many years were an addition to her repertoire.

Daughter Celia was born in 1957 shortly after Buzz’s career started. As his work transferred them to various locations in Louisiana, Mickey embraced each move and each new town. Each time they transferred she was always ready to go to meet new people and enjoy a new place. It sort of got in her blood, so that after a few short years in one place, she was ready to go.

Later, before their move to Texas, she returned to school to get her teaching certification, which she never actually used but served as a substitute teacher at whatever schools her daughters were attending.

While Mickey’s greatest pride was her girls and being their mother, she enjoyed many years of substitute teaching at their schools. She was always active in church -- Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Methodist, Presbyterian via Dee -- and was on various occasions a Sunday School teacher, VBS volunteer and “assistant to the Sunday School superintendent, her husband. In particular she enjoyed a good Bible study, her standards being rather high as she was married to a top-notch Bible study leader. In the early 1980s after her mother—who suffered long debilitated years and to whom she was devoted—died, Mickey spent several years as a Candy Striper at a local hospital in San Angelo. In Mansfield she was a volunteer for several years at the First Methodist Thrift store. She and Buzz modeled financial generosity by supporting many organizations and causes and their churches.

Mickey was not immune to the effects of being ensconced during childhood in a society of racism, homophobia, and classism. While she was not exposed to the cruelest aspects of it, she was nevertheless raised in it. But she married someone from a similar background who somehow early on in his teen years had recognized the evil, began quietly fighting it, breaking the chain in his own family. Slowly over her long life she became aware that indeed white privilege exists and that she was clearly a beneficiary. And while she never flew her colors over women’s rights, she always thought a woman held autonomy over her own body and championed women’s rights as human rights. In her last years she became an active advocate for social justice for all peoples, participating in protests and financially supporting just causes and political candidates. It was a bitterness to her and to her daughters to be at the end of her life watching this nation her husband served and that saved the world in her childhood and which once stood for progressing toward liberty and justice for all could be choosing a path so ugly. A coping mechanism she took up for a few years was collecting political cartoons. It’s quite a collection.

Mickey was also a ranked master bridge player, having really learned to play in college. While she and Buzz often played bridge together, over the years she was part of several bridge clubs and enjoyed playing until 2023, age 92, when Macular Degeneration made it impossible. She also became in her fifties a cracker jack bowler and for years was in a women’s league until her late eighties. She read widely and avidly (or listened after she lost most of her sight) novels, memoirs, historical fiction, news magazines, Time, Newsweek or US News, whichever one was available at the lowest subscription price. Her Bible reading or listening, as it often was, was very consistent for years as Buzz would read her to sleep with Scripture. The last memoir she read was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s.

To say that she was fastidious about her appearance especially her hair is an understatement. Never did she go out without her lightly applied makeup, a manicure and pedicure and her hair perfectly coiffed. She was very photogenic and had the most perfect smile. Her hair had a life of its own permed every few months, done every week and sprayed repeatedly through the week. If a breeze was blowing her scarf was whipped out and if a sprinkle began likewise her rain scarf. Her appreciation for nice tasteful clothing and jewelry was rivaled only by her desire to acquire them at the requisite bargain price. Mickey was a bargain hunter extraordinaire (never buy anything that is not at least half-price). Shopping was an artful hobby; everything from her wardrobe to her groceries. This served her in her always searching for the perfect gift or card for every birthday, or holiday event. To her final days the card was essential. It had to say the right thing for each person, adult or child. She determined always that each greatgrandchild on any occasion receive a card.

She loved to dance despite having married a non-dancer and particularly enjoyed the 50s Crooners--Sinatra and crew, Big Band and Swing and Jazz of the 40s and 50s. Very late in life, as in her eighties, Mickey overcame her fear of swimming pools. She decided when Joe and Celia built a pool at their house around the corner that she could maybe try it out. She had not learned to swim in her childhood and so was terrified of drowning. For many years Mickey had sat in the shade protecting her fairest of skin and enduring heat, which she hated, but refusing to leave the family volleyball games, which she watched while constantly trying to avoid being splashed. Her hair was always paramount, so when she began getting in the pool she would admonish Dee and Celia to keep the dogs or children some distance away while she floated upright, hanging onto her pool noodle in the shallow end. We would roll our eyes and say something to the effect of “Mother! You are in a pool. Your hair will be fine.”

Mickey loved to travel, and she and Buzz enjoyed many domestic trips with his company, GTE. Later in their retirement they travelled throughout the US and made several trips to Europe, her last two with Celia and Dee and Rick on a Viking cruise in 2018 and a New England Canadian cruise in 2019. Others were planned but were not meant to be.

Mickey and Buzz became grandparents in their mid-fifties to Celia’s and Joe’s children, Joseph and Michal, and then again in their early 60s to Dee’s and Rick’s, Julia and Richard. After Buzz’s retirement they made the decision to relocate to Mansfield to be close to their daughters and grandchildren. They were intimately involved in raising these precious children. This next chapter of their lives was filled with coaching and cheering and taxi driving grands to various events. To say that Mickey loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren is an understatement: she adored them.

Truly Mickey’s favorite times were being with her girls and then with both their families. She loved the many holidays when both families joined to celebrate—especially Christmas which was both hers and Buzz’s favorite.

She also truly loved her sons-in-law, Joe and Rick, and felt so fortunate that her girls married fine men. They both had teasing loving relationships with her and did many things for her in her last years for which she was always grateful.

She cared about the environment and was an avid recycler. At her Mansfield house about 15 years ago, Bluebirds began yearly nesting in the birdhouse erected which thrilled her. She was sad to leave them when she moved. But this year a family found the house in her Bedford backyard. She struggled to see them because of her AMD but was able to some with the birdcam we set up.

There were many beloved pets through her life. All were dogs, as she did NOT like cats, until one sneaked herself into Mickey’s life and lasted 22 years. For the last ten years, her terrier mutt Sadie, adopted from the North Texas Humane Society, has been her constant devoted companion.

Buzz died in December of 2017. Eventually life circumstances prompted a move after thirty years in Mansfield to Bedford where her granddaughter, Julia, lived with her until her death.

She leaves behind her two daughters, Dee Walsh and her husband Rick of Grapevine, Celia Brawner and her husband, Joe, of Graford; grandchildren Joseph Brawner and his wife Marianne and their daughters Molly Madeley, Caroline Celia and Mary Blake of Fort Worth; Michal Dee Driskill and her husband Jeremy and sons Atticus and Elliot of Brock; Julia Walsh of Bedford; and Richard Walsh and his wife Lyndsey and their children Caiden and Alanna of Mansfield.

Mickey will be remembered by her family as selfless and kind without thought for herself, a devoted daughter, loving wife, mother, grandmother and gracious southern lady who truly loved life and who was not ever without lipstick on, nails polished, hair coiffed, attired stylishly and tastefully bejeweled. We hold to the hope of our faith that she with Buzz “sees now face to face” and maybe even is dancing in Heaven with Buzz to “their” song, “Again”.

If one wishes to memorialize Mickey, donations may be made to Wreaths Across America, The Humane Society of North Texas, The Salvation Army, Union Gospel Mission, The North Texas Food Bank, First Presbyterian Church of Grapevine, Doctors Without Borders, just a few of those she supported, or actually any charity at all. She was a cheerful and generous giver.