Thursday, Jan. 21 2010 4:10PM
Opal Nadine Newsam
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ReprintOpal Nadine Newsam, 95, Lee’s Summit, formerly of Jefferson City, died Jan. 20, 2010 at John Knox Village Care Center.
Opal was born on a cold night Jan. 13, 1915 in Hibernia Heights, Callaway County, the 10th child (or 10th of 10 as Opal always said) of John Lewis Adkison and Effie May Farmer Adkison. Interestingly, this was her father’s birthday (Jan. 13, 1861).
She was welcomed by one of her older siblings, Hazel, who commented “another stinking kid to diaper.” It should be noted that Hazel became the oldest girl at home when her sister, Flo, got married when Hazel was 10 so she was her mother’s main helper for caring for her younger siblings.
Opal grew up on the family farm which was purchased in 1893 for $5,000 and consisted of 159 acres. She attended early school in Holts Summit in a four-room grade school. Opal’s mother was the disciplinarian and Opal, being a very active child, remembered her mother making many trips to the tree behind the house to pull off small branches for switches.
Opal loved swinging high on the porch swing at the family farm house while her closest sibling, Lee Dell, liked to swing low, like a lady. Opal was a true “farm girl” and learned early about hard work, doing laundry on a wash board using lye soap. She remembered fondly riding in the family Chevrolet Model 490 touring car and using bricks heated on the wood stove to put on the floor of the car, to keep feet warm in the winter. She also remembered taking trips to the Cole County Courthouse in Jefferson City where they had indoor plumbing, which didn’t come to the Adkison farm until 1938 while she was at college. Central heat consisted of wood burning fireplaces in most rooms.
Opal was very proud of her farm home and often talked about it. One thing that was mentioned often was the windmill that actually was the water source (pump) for the farm. The windmill was built in 1915, the year of Opal’s birth, and turned until it was taken down in March 1994 when it was purchased by a local Holts Summit person who had admired it for many years.
It was repaired and turns now in “retirement.” During the years before water systems were put in it supplied water for five farms from a 550-foot well. Water was pumped into a cypress holding tank built on a brick silo adjacent to the windmill which also provided some pressure. In the 1930s, during the peak of the drought, the well was one of the few in the area that never went dry.
Growing up in the 1920s without the electronic media devices we take for granted today didn’t mean people didn’t have fun. Opal remembers rabbit barbecues where the neighborhood would get together with the men and boys supplying the rabbits they had hunted.
They would gather at someone’s farm that had a smokehouse where the rabbits would be hung on a wire over the fire and basted with butter, salt and pepper. The women would bring biscuits, fried pies, pickles and coffee. There would be hard candy for the kids. Going to the “show” meant a trip to “Jeff” on the evening train. She remembers cutting ice in blocks off the ponds in winter and storing it under sawdust in the ice house which would keep long into the summer.
Opal’s father died in 1936 when she was 16 and her mother ran the family farm with help from some of Opal’s older brothers for a number of years after. She did remember her home having the first telephone in south Callaway County and her brother, Howard, wired the house for electricity in 1932 and built the indoor bathroom in 1938.
As Opal’s mother was very interested in education for her children, she moved to Columbia in 1923 with five children, Opal was age 8, to a house at 600 Conley Ave. right across the street from Jesse Hall, the administration building for the University of Missouri. Older MU grads will remember Conley Avenue as the street that the famous watering hole known as the “Shack” was on. The family occupied the home and extra rooms were rented to students to earn money. A second home next door at 604 Conley, was purchased in 1924. Opal finished elementary school in Columbia. This home was sold in 1928 for a $2,000 profit.
Shortly after this, Opal’s father ran for county judge of Callaway County and won, so Opal moved again with the family in 1929 to Fulton and attended Fulton High School where she was active in athletics, playing on the school’s girls basketball team as a spunky guard. Her father lost in a bid for a second term and the family then moved back to the family farm in Holts Summit to their large white frame house which was “home” from 1893 until 1966 when Opal’s mother died. Opal enrolled in Jefferson City High School where she graduated in 1933.
With encouragement, prodding and some financial help from her sister, Lee Dell, and brother, Howard, Opal moved back to Columbia again to began studying at the University of Missouri where she earned a degree in physical education in 1938. While going to school she babysat for a professor to earn extra money. She had very fond memories of her time at the University of Missouri and encouraged her son John to attend there, which he did, graduating in 1977. One of her proudest days was standing in front of the columns at Jesse Hall in May 1977 holding a sign that said 1938-1977 with new graduate, John.
After graduation, Opal was hired by the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton to teach girls physical education and coach basketball. As a part of her job she had to learn sign language to communicate with her students. Opal continued in this job until World War II began and at that time she left Fulton to join her sister, Lee Dell, who was working in Washington, D.C.
Due to her physical education background, Opal took training at Walter Reed Hospital in physical therapy and began working with injured soldiers who were brought back with serious injuries. She spent much of her time working with soldiers who had lost arms or legs in combat and this experience would help her many years later when she worked with handicapped children in Jefferson City.
After the war, Opal returned to Jefferson City where she worked for Missouri Employment Security as there weren’t any teaching jobs available at that time. She left the state of Missouri’s employment to go to work as head bookkeeper for the local Ford dealer, Sexton Ford. While working at the dealership, she was introduced to a young widower, David Newsam, owner of a local bakery, who happened to purchase the trucks for his business at the dealership. This was in 1949. David and Opal dated until 1951 when they became engaged and married on April 25, 1953. They purchased a home on Hayselton Drive in Jefferson City where they lived for 33 years.
John William Newsam was born on May 22, 1954 and Opal became a happy mother. She spent a great deal of time working in the office at the bakery and taking care of her two boys, David and John. She enjoyed attending bakers’ conventions with David.
In 1962, David and Opal purchased Columbia Baking Company in Columbia and Opal spent many hours working between the bakeries in Columbia and Jefferson City. She still found time to attend Halloween parties at John’s grade school as a room mother and was a mother to all John’s grade school classmates.
Although Opal worked at the bakery, she still cooked meals for David and John and she was famous for her handmade angel food cakes with green icing. The bakery in Columbia burned in 1967 and she and David decided the best thing for them to do was sell the business which they did in 1968.
Opal served at president of the Jefferson City Lioness Ladies three times while David was an active member of the Jefferson City Lions Club. She volunteered for a number of years at the Goshorn Handicapped Center, using her physical therapy skills to work with the children there. She enjoyed yoga and most people who knew Opal in the 1970s, remember her standing on her head, among other yoga positions she would do.
In 1969 to settle the estate of her mother, David and Opal purchased the farm property where she grew up. Opal had grandchildren, Leslie in 1982 and Paige in 1986, which became a very important part of her life. She loved it when they came to Jefferson City and always planned fun things to do. She enjoyed doing “kid” things very much and said that the best thing about having kids was when they had grandkids.
In 1984, Opal and David built a new home at 123 Dover Drive where they lived for 16 years. During the 1980s, Opal and David discovered ocean cruising and she and David enjoyed several cruises, some of which they took with their granddaughters, Leslie and Paige. Opal became friends with her neighbors and enjoyed them and their children.
David entered politics in 1974, becoming a Cole County Commissioner and then Cole County Recorder of Deeds and Opal was a “politician’s wife” for the next 20 years. David also became active in a group of retired World War II veterans that served in the China Burma India campaign and together they attended a number of national conventions and also had a local group which sometimes held meetings at their home. Opal always stayed active and became a champion “mall walker” and was featured in the local Jefferson City newspaper.
During the 1990s, Opal began to experience memory loss which we now know was the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. This would take her down the same path as three of her siblings who were still living at that time. Opal and David had been making weekly visits to see her brother, Howard, first at John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit and then in a nursing care facility close to Jefferson City.
Opal and David moved to an apartment at John Knox Village in 2002 to be closer to John and his wife, Susan, and Leslie and Paige. She was able to see her granddaughters graduate from high school and attend some of Paige’s basketball games while she was in high school. After an appendectomy in 2003, she moved into the John Knox Village Care Center where she became a favorite of many of the workers there.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; five brothers; and five sisters.
She is survived by one son, John and his wife Susan Newsam, Lee’s Summit; two granddaughters, Leslie and Paige Newsam; two grandsons, Carl and Cole Turner; and one great-grandson, Kevin Turner.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 23 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, with the Rev. Msgr. Robert A. Kurwicki officiating. Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 22 at Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home with a 6 p.m. prayer service.
Memorials are suggested to the Alzheimer’s Association, 2400 Bluff Creek Dr.,Columbia, MO 65201, or to the Carmelite Monastery, 2201 W. Main St., Jefferson City, MO 65109.
Those wishing to e-mail condolences to the family may do so at www.dulletrimble.com.
(Arrangements: Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home, 3210 N. Ten Mile Dr., Jefferson City, MO 65109; 573-893-5251)
