Nancy Marilyn Newman, 88, passed away on November 27, 2021, in her room in Brookdale Senior Living in Pinehurst, NC. Nancy was born in Borger, Texas to Odes Allen Board (1890-1970), a rancher, farmer, and WWI Navy Veteran; and Susan Ellen Aynesworth Board (1906-1999), a teacher and graduate of then-West Texas State Teachers College.
One of her earliest memories was of her parents putting a wet washcloth over her face and her older sister Jo Ann at night to protect them from the dust storms of the Texas Panhandle’s “Dustbowl” in the ’30s where her Dad lost both his farms during the Depression. He then went to work for Phillips Petroleum Company as a day laborer. Nancy grew up in Phillips, Texas, where she fell in love with a neighbor boy who lived on the next street, Joe Bob Newman. She graduated from Phillips High School in 1951, where she was a cheerleader and then went to then-West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas, where she graduated with a BA in Speech in 1955. After graduation, she went to Dallas, where her sister Jo Ann and husband Bill Hamilton lived, and Mom would become very close to her sister’s three children: Allen, Lynn and Janie.
In 1957 she married her high school sweetheart, Joe Bob Newman (1931-2008), following his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and accompanied him to his first duty station at Ft. Hood, Texas. Her first child, Robert Board, would be born at Ft. Rucker, Alabama while they were living in a motel that the Army had rented for students at Army flight training. She also accompanied her husband to Kitzingen, Germany in 1959 along with her son, and while her husband deployed immediately to the field due to the Berlin Crisis, she carried coal up from the basement to their apartment wearing her husband’s West Point bathrobe to keep warm.
Their daughter Cara Allison was born in 1963 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. They would spend 25 years in the Army, seven of it in Europe in where they would travel extensively. During Joe’s two-year-long combat tours in Vietnam, Nancy would return to live near her parents in Amarillo, Texas. Joe would retire in 1982 in Fairfax, Virginia and they lived there until 1999 and the death of Nancy’s Mom. They then moved to Sun City, Georgetown, Texas in order to be near their son’s family at Ft. Hood.
Nancy always supported her kids and grandkids/grandnieces activities. She attempted to attend all of their athletic events, and Cara’s dramatic performances from elementary school to high school, college, drama school and afterwards; always ensuring that they (and everyone else present…) knew that they were avid supporters present at the event.
In Georgetown, Nancy and Joe enjoyed their visits with grandchildren (even travelling to California, Jordan and Egypt) and nieces/nephew, and road trips across America with their best friends from their tours in Germany and Belgium. They really enjoyed participating in Phillips High School reunions, and in Joe’s West Point class reunions. She and Joe were also founding members of Wellspring United Methodist Church.
One of her best memories was of her 50th Wedding Anniversary Party that her daughter-in-law Kay organized for her at the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, Texas in 2008 that was well-attended by family and friends. Joe passed away in 2008, but Nancy did not let that get her down. She continued to visit her grandchildren Summer, Brody and Molly in California and Hawaii; and even visited her other two grandchildren, Joe and Rachel, in Egypt where she took a Nile Cruise and went with them to Banff, Canada. Even after a botched hip surgery left her with a right drop-foot and the need to use a walker, Nancy decided she wanted to remain mobile and independent. She found someone to adopt her car and train her to drive left-footed, so she could continue to take her friends out to eat, and attend her “sit and fit” class. She flew by herself to Rachel’s graduation from McGill University in Montreal.
In May 2018 Nancy went to North Carolina to visit Bob’s family and attend Joe’s graduation from Sandhills Community College, and Rachel’s graduation with an MA in English from UVA. Unfortunately, she got sick as a result of some Cancer medication that weakened her heart and she was unable to return to Texas and live on her own…. She went to live at Brookdale Pinehurst, where she happily made new friends and became a member of Southern Pines United Methodist Church. She continued to attend Joe’s musical concerts at UNC-P and with the Moore County Concert Band. One of her last major decisions was to establish college funds for her two youngest grandchildren, Molly and TJ, adopted by Cara and her husband Richard, just as she and Joe had provided college funds for her other grandchildren.
Nancy leaves her two children: Cara Ruyle of Glendale, California and Bob Newman of Southern Pines, North Carolina; and six grandchildren: Joe Newman of Southern Pines, NC; Rachel Newman, a PhD Candidate at USC, Los Angeles, California; and Summer, Brody, Molly and TJ Ruyle, of Glendale, California.
Services and a reception in her honor will occur in early 2022 at the Central Texas Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas where she will be buried next to her husband.
Online condolences may be made at www.bolesfuneralhome.com
Service arrangements have been entrusted to Boles Funeral Home.
