Family History
Richard P. Newton, Sr., was born on October 3, 1925, probably in Baltimore, Maryland, the second son of Robert J. Newton and Lillian Newton. Robert and Lillian eventually divorced and Lillian married Mike Boehm. Richard became engaged to Dorothy Anna Speilman on September 20, 1944. They married in early 1945, presumably in Baltimore, while Richard was on leave from the U. S. Naval Torpedo Station, Norfolk, Virginia. They had two children, Diana, born before 1950, and Richard P. Newton, Jr., born after 1951.
Richard served in World War II and the Korean War as a torpedo man, second class. In 1944, he was stationed aboard the USS Thornhill (DE-195) in Portland, Maine. Also that year he attended school at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island. In 1945, he was in Norfolk, Virginia, for training and waiting to go aboard a ship in Orange, Texas. In 1950, when the Naval Reserve was called for duty in the Korean War, Richard was stationed on the USS George K. MacKenzie (DD-836) in the Pacific. He died on January 20, 2004, in Parkville, Maryland.
Dorothy Speilman Newton was born May 1, 1926, probably in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1943, she was a member of the Soap and Glycerine Workers Union of the American Federation of Labor. In 1944, she lived with her future mother-in-law, Lillian Boehm, and worked in the bar Lillian owned in Baltimore. After her marriage Dorothy still worked in the bar and lived above it as late as 1950. Lillian had moved to Stevensville, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore and lived there with her husband, son and Dorothy and Richard's daughter, Diana. By March 1951, the bar had been sold and Dorothy had moved into a house she and Richard purchased. She searched for a new job and finally found one doing "highly secret" work in a manufacturing plant (letter to Richard dated March 27, 1951). She died on August 16, 2000, in Parkville, Maryland.
