Lois Newsham, a longtime resident of Stratford (CT), Gettysburg (PA), Seven Lakes (NC) and Thousand Oaks (CA) died recently in 2019 at age 94. After a happy childhood with sister Phyllis (“my best friend”), brother Gene and parents Claudius and Mildred, she graduated from the University of Connecticut (B.S. in Foods and Nutrition and Chemistry) and Ohio State University (M.S. in Dietetics). She worked in hospital dietetics in Philadelphia (PA) and Frederick (MD) and later as nutritional consultant to three Gettysburg nursing homes.
In 1949 she married Richard C. Newsham while he was a University of Pennsylvania veterinary student on the G.I. Bill. In 1951 they established his farm and small animal veterinary practice in Gettysburg where they raised three children and were active in (Presbyterian) church, school and service organizations until they retired in 1980 to Seven Lakes. There they enjoyed “golf, bridge and many fine friendships” for 26 years before her husband of 57 years died in 2006. Three years later she moved to California to be near their children, Richard and Carol, and son-in-law William Schreiber, who survive her, along with their third child Kent, who lives in Texas with daughter-in-law Helen and two granddaughters Tarah and Brittany.
Family and friends will gather to celebrate her life privately and by donations to Operation Smile, her favorite among many, many charities. Her ashes will be placed with her husband’s in the Seven Lakes Chapel in the Pines.
Lois endured dementia in her final years with humor, poise and always a very big smile, writing in a farewell note: “I feel grateful for my long, happy marriage and have been blessed with a wonderful, loving family. I thank God every day for the blessings of my life.”
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