Historical November–December 2007 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
In 1963, Betty and Bob Newsham moved to the 6100 block of Kingsbury, dug in their heels and stayed, fighting for the neighborhood through a long string of troubles: crime and urban decay, redlining and residential flight, storms and shallow-rooted sycamores. Now, they have quietly moved – though not far, to a 15th-floor perch in the Dorchester Apartments. Nobody on Kingsbury can quite believe they are gone.
If you think of a block as a body, says neighbor Margaret Hermes, “Bob and Betty represent the warm heart and, without a doubt, Betty has served as the eyes of 6100 Kingsbury.” “They believed in this neighborhood and helped hold it together during the turbulent times,” adds Pat McClafferty, a 6100 resident. “What more can you do for a neighborhood than raise your own children in it?” When the Newshams first heard about the big house for sale on Kingsbury, they were living in Richmond Heights with eight children, and their ninth was on the way.
The price – $13,750 – was right, and they already knew Jim and Anne McCarthy, who lived across the street. “But when we saw the house, it was raining and water was just pouring into the third floor; there was a big hole in the steps going up.
It was really a wreck,” says Betty Newsham today.
As they later discovered, it had housed a Washington University fraternity some years before. Undaunted, they took a bigger mortgage, fixed it up and moved in. Their children – John (who died in 1996), Pete, Mimi, Paul (“Herman”), Joe, Jane, Peggy, Ann and Kitty – all attended St. Roch School and found plenty of friends. At one time, 108 children under 16 lived on the block.
They played step ball; decorated a “shoe tree” with wornout sneakers; and celebrated Flag Day on the barricade with peanutbutter sandwiches. “Do you remember Pete Fossell, the fruit-and-vegetable man?” says Betty. “He sold candy, too, and would cash the kids’ baby-sitting checks.
We had a birthday party for him, with cake and sandwiches, every year on July 17.” But she also recalls tough times, when some Rosedale folks fled to the suburbs and crime picked up.
With other determined residents, Betty fought for stability through art fairs and the Residential Service.
She became a vigilant street watcher, spotting suspicious activity and getting to know the local police.
She and Bob, who spent most of his career as a mechanical engineer for Granite City Steel, also played an active role at St. Roch Church.
With several members, Betty participated in a quilting club that donated its proceeds to charity, while Bob took part in the St. Vincent De Paul Society. At times, the Newshams faced tempests in their private lives, like the storm that swept through the neighborhood one summer day, blowing down an old sycamore crushing their parked car. Or the 2006 power outage that they braved, refusing to leave and sleeping on their back porch. “They have been such friendly, stable and helpful neighbors,” says Joan Bender of 6100 Kingsbury. “You could always count on them.” Their old home now has new owners: Lenn and Susanne Knese, formerly of the 6100 block of Washington. Still, Bill Christman’s sculpture park on 6000 Kingsbury will continue to display one Newsham memento: the back-yard whirligig that Bob built for his 11 grandchildren. “There always seemed to be a lot of action in this neighborhood and a lot of people with common problems who got along real well,” says Bob, reflecting on his 44- year tenure. “I don’t know how it happened, but it’s always been a great group of people.
We enjoyed it here, and we’ll miss it.”
Original photograph caption
Betty and Bob Newsham. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2007.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Printed byline O’Conner differs from possible existing O’Connor profile; publisher must verify mapping, no identity merge assumed.
Original source: SD_Times2007_11.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
