Jesse Strickland Newsom, Jr., affectionately known as Strick, age 90, of Sandersville passed away on Monday, June 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida. A funeral service to celebrate his life will be held on Saturday, June 15 at 11:00 a.m. in the Sandersville United Methodist Church with burial in the Sandersville Old City Cemetery. Reverend Dr. Stan Littleton will officiate. Pallbearers will be Mr. Newsom’s grandchildren. The family will greet friends in Sandersville United Methodist Church Heritage Hall from 10:00 a.m. until the hour of service.
Mr. Newsome was born on June 17, 1933, in Peoria, Illinois, the son of the late Jesse Strickland Newsom, Sr. and the late Elizabeth Pritchard Newsom. At the age of 6, his family relocated to Sandersville. Strick was a graduate of the Sandersville High School and Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University – former President of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Following graduation, Mr. Newsome joined the United States Navy and served on three destroyer escorts in the Pacific Fleet as a Chief Engineer. After returning home, he attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a Masters degree in Business Administration, meeting his first wife, Betty Harmuth, whom he married in 1961. Strick then joined Brown Brothers Harriman and Co., a private international banking firm on Wall Street in New York City, rising to the role of Loan Officer. In 1970, Mr. Newsome purchased F.W. Bolgiano and Co., a seed distributor in Washington D.C., before later founding the Newsom Seed Company in Maryland, which he would own and operate until his retirement. While in Maryland, he and his wife reared a family and were mightily active in their community. Following her death, Strick reacquainted with a childhood friend, Barbara Etheridge, whom he later married – then residing in the Maryland/D.C. area, active in cultural arts at the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian. In 1998, Mr. Strickland returned to Sandersville to be near family and friends – extensively traveling and remaining active in the community as members of the Sandersville United Methodist Church, the Twin City and Country Club, and the Sandersville Lions Club. He held a passion for the outdoors and tending to his land. Strick most cehrished his time spent with family. In addition to his first wife, Mr. Newsome is preceded in death by his sister Josephine Pritchard Newsom Cumming and brother-in-law, Frank Cumming.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara Etheridge Newsom of Sandersville; children, Jesse Strickland Newsom III and wife Dee of North Carolina, Joday Franklin Newsom and wife Sheila of Maryland, and Beth Newsom and husband Tarek Sawi of Virginia; step-daughters, Lora Barbara Lemon and husband Brett of Florida and Elizabeth Congo and husband Paul of Florida; and grandchildren, Jessica Lynn Newsom, Franklin Dean Newsom, Charles Stickland Newsom, Sullivan Newsom, Nathan Newsom, John Gauntt, Parker Gauntt, and Lillie Congo.
Online condolences may be expressed at mayandsmithfuneraldirectors.com.
May and Smith Funeral Directors is in charge of these arrangements.