Gladys Lorraine McNew

A graveside funeral service will be held on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 2:00 pm at Guilford Memorial Park, 6000 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro, NC. The family will visit with friends following the service.

Lorraine, as she was known to friends and family, was born on July 11, 1937, as the first of six children to Alice Kirchenbauer McNew and Dwight Gladstone McNew of Ponca City, Oklahoma.

She graduated from Ponca City High School, and later, Saint Anthony’s School of Nursing. She worked as a registered nurse and hospital administrator for several years. Lorraine later attended Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology. She was employed by Aetna insurance for the last 20 years of her career.

Lorraine loved the outdoors and accompanied her father and brothers for elk hunting trips to Colorado while she still lived in Ponca City.

Lorraine moved to Greensboro, North Carolina in the early 1990’s. At about that time, she and her friend Mecía built a cabin in the mountains of Virginia.

For the last three years of her life, Lorraine lived in an assisted living facility with her friend, Susan Hinshaw, overseeing her care. And until her declining health made church attendance too difficult, Lorraine enjoyed Sunday school and the company of friends in her neighborhood.

Lorraine was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Nancy Carole Smith of Denver, Colorado; her brothers, James Lewis McNew and Donald Gene McNew, both of Ponca City, Oklahoma; and her longtime friend and fellow nurse, Delores Mecia Marsh.

She is survived by her son, John Wesley Phillips of Lexington, Oklahoma; her sister, Maryann McNew Valdivia of Escondido, California; and her brother, Delbert Dwight “Pete” McNew of Wichita, Kansas.