A reception was held Friday, March 26, 2021, at the Lamb County Family Resource Center, to honor Mrs. Jere Newton for her 43 years of service to families in the area. She may be retiring on March 31, however, she plans to continue serving families as a consultant.
She credits her unique upbringing for her ability to integrate empathy and understanding to her work with troubled families.
Her parents were highly educated and well traveled. Her father was a petroleum engineer for Phillips Petroleum. Her mother was a college graduate as well, with close ties to her grandmother who immigrated from Germany.
As the story goes, Jere’s great-grandmother lived in Berlin, and after WWI, her grandmother was engaged to a young man, Walter, who immigrated to Oklahoma in the US. There he partnered with another immigrant to build a farm.
Tragically, her grandmother’s fiance died of heatstroke. His partner went to Germany to bring Walter’s money to his fiance, and asked her mother for her hand in marriage. Her mother advised her to go, because the wars had killed so many young men, there was little future for her daughter in Germany.
So her grandmother married Ernst Koehler (apparently he was related to the family who built the Koehler Company), and she left a fashionable home in Germany with gaslights, to a half dugout on a farm about 40 miles from Guymon, Oklahoma.
Fast forward to Jere Newton’s parents. Martha Koehler married a petroleum engineer named LeRoy Williamson. Jere, along with her two sisters and one brother, grew up in oil communities and moved often.
Although it was hard to leave friends behind, her father assured them that they will learn a lot from living in different places and would find enrichment that would help them throughout life.
Jere’s first home was in Oklahoma City, Okla. From there the family moved to an oil camp in Shydler, Oklahoma, then to Cortez, Colorado where the family developed a love for the mountains and winter sports, like skiing and ice skating.
In Cortez, the family visited Mesa Verde and traveled to Thermopolis, where they learned to appreciate ancient Native American cultures. Jere attended school with Native American children of the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo nations.
From Cortez, the family moved to Casper, Wyo., just prior to when her father was transferred to Norway. He was the superintendent of the largest oil platform in that country.
Jere traveled with her family and her grandmother, who was fluent in German, to Norway, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and a brief visit to England.
The family moved from Casper, Wyo., to Borger, Texas.
Jere graduated from Borger High School, where she met a young man who made an impact on her career decision. The young man had struggled in a family life that from a very young age, left him feeling alienated, due to a lack of trust and acceptance.
Throughout her career, Jere, has worked with children who feel that their parents take care of them, but do not love them. She stated she has heard this from children much too often.
Since her graduation from Texas Tech University in 1978, Jere has devoted her life to families
She worked with Child Protective Services in Lamb and Bailey counties for five years, and with Juvenile Probation for five years. She has been with the Family Resource Center since then.
Jere and her husband, Alan Newton, have lived in Littlefield since they married, and raised two daughters.
The daughters currently live in Arkansas and Georgia, and Jere and Alan are proud of their three grandchildren.