Leaving a young family behind....

Edythe's death certificate.  Name is incorrect probably because a Mabel Richards, probably an acquaintance or public official  gave the coroner the information.  The certificate states she had had tuberculosis for 2 years.

Edythe died November 8, 1920.  As much as she must have struggled to live, she succumbed to tuberculosis as a young mother of five children ages 2-11.

The following letter was written by Nina Callester to Ross B. Denham, Edythe's youngest son.  Nina was a granddaughter of Sheriff Newman.  

 "Grandpa Newman was a sheriff of Navajo  county in Arizona long before I was born.  He had sold his cattle ranch to move to town so the children could be in school. There he was elected.  Grandmother wanted him out of the atmosphere of the political arena, so she talked him into going to a small town in Utah so they could have more of the Mormon atmosphere.  They bought a large two story home and the people in Holbrook again voted Grandpa back in office even without him being there, so they again moved back to Holbrook.  Their home was gone, so they lived in the court house in an apartment there.


One day, a man came rushing into the court house and said, "Mr. Newman, can you help me?  My wife is dying."  Grandpa went with him, I thought to a hotel, but you said it was a home.  There he said he found a mother who had lain so long in the bed she had worn the bedding down into the mattress.  The children were 'mewing' and hungry.  The woman died, and the man asked grandpa if he could find homes for his children, which they did.  The Denhams were friends of Grandpa's and good members of the church, so they were childless, and took the baby, which was you.  They had to be fine people for the way you turned out."


Harold related the following to Ross in July of 1981.


"One evening, my mother gathered all her children around her and told us she was going away.   She told us how much she loved us and how she wanted us to be good.  She wanted us to be good to our father, to help him and each other.   She must have felt she would not live very long, and she was trying to prepare us for the probability."

Obituary 

Holbrook, Arizona Tribune - Friday, November 12, 1920 - Page 8

Mrs. Crumley Passes Away Monday Night - (Edythe Kathryne Lundberg Crumley)

     

      Mrs. Edith Crumley died at her home in Holbrook Monday night at 11:00 o'clock being afflicted with tuberculosis for the past two years.  She was the wife of Charles Crumley, a carpenter, aged 43 years, and was born in Ellsworth, Wisconsin.  Mrs. Crumley leaves aside from her husband five small children, the eldest being 11 years old and the youngest two years which makes her death a sad one.  The remains were buried in the Holbrook cemetery Tuesday at 4:30 o'clock.  Rev. Frank R. Speck, of the Methodist Episcopal church officiating with a short ritual service and a prayer.

The above photo was given to Virginia on Nov. 8, 1922, on the two-year anniversary of Edythe's death.   Charles perhaps brought it by or sent it as a gift of remembrance.  He obviously wanted his children to remember their mother.  Marjorie died in April of that year so Virginia was his only daughter left.  Virginia and Ross must have felt the weight of sadness in the loss of their mother and then their sister in death and the company of their father and brothers all within a year and a half.