Tuesday, February 06, 2007

LILLIAN STIRES-NEWMAN
1934 – 2007
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My mother passed away in her sleep last Thursday. She was seventy-two.

Mabel Lillian Davis was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Her parents were Ben C. Davis and Bertha Joan (Hall) Davis. She had two older sisters (Mildred Lee {Millie} and Martha Leone {Toni}), one brother (Herbert Ray), and one younger sister (Margaret Louise {Lou}).

She preferred being called Lillian. She hated the name Mabel and in later life stopped using it all together. Her family nickname was Dickie. I have no idea how she got the nickname. Once I heard that her sister Millie gave it to her but I never heard why.

Mom was married twice. First, to my father Norman Stires Jr. (Dad died at the age of 42 from a massive heart attack.) Then to Gary Robert Newman. (Gary passed away four years ago from congestive heart failure.) While family members have always told me that my Dad was the love of my mother’s life, I can say firsthand that Mom and Gary had a wonderful marriage and always took good care of each other.

An aside: Several months ago, Mom told me that she was worried about when she got to Heaven. She knew, without doubt, that my Dad would be the first person she saw. That would be absolutely wonderful but she was worried about it, too. I asked her why. She said she didn’t know how she was going to explain to Norm who Gary was.

My mother and father had two children -- my younger brother Hugh Timothy and me. (Tim was killed by a drunk driver in 1985.)

She had one grandson (Tim’s son) Brian Timothy.
*
Rest in Peace, Mom.

5 comments:

d said...

amen (to the resting in peace).

Your mom sounds lovely and sweet (the story about her worry about heaven made me smile) I'll just bet she was greeted by her TWO fellas.

Bless you and your mom.

Rogue Blades Entertainment said...

My sincere well-wishes, Chris. I hope that you and your mother had some good moments together since her fall on the 21st and that you were able to relive many fond memories.

Stay strong and healthy over the ensuing weeks of change ahead.

Cheryl Swanson said...

Peace to you as well, Chris. The artist works only with fire, but you've had enough for awhile.

Your mother died with a great blessing intact--a good son.

Cheryl Swanson

Gloria Oliver said...

Sorry to hear about this, Chris. :( Let us know if we can do anything.

Gloria

Anonymous said...

hello Chris,

it has been a very long time since we last saw each other. i wasn't quite sure who you were..until i saw the notice about aunt dickie. i think the last time i saw her was in the mid seventies, i believe she was working for a water company or similar.

sorry to read about timmy. god, it has been a long time....

my name is perry smith. my mom was your dad's sister.

if you inclined contact me at plsmith417@sbcglobal.net...

please accept my belated but sincere condolences.....