Norma Dueece Spencer Newsom Young

Norma Dueece Spencer Newsom Young, 84, died Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010 at Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, Md. of complications from pneumonia.

She was born to Clyde and Cecil Stewart Spencer on Dec. 20, 1926, in Fort Wayne. She graduated from Greencastle High School in 1945 and attended Indiana University.

Mrs. Young was a painter and was a member of the Brewster Street Gang, a group of artists who displayed their work in the Washington D.C. region. She worked mostly in oils and concentrated on still life and representational paintings.

During the 1950s and '60s, she traveled abroad with her husband, who had foreign service postings in Germany, Pakistan, France, New Zealand and Korea.

She lived in Silver Spring, Md. where she sang in the choir and was a member of Christ Congregational Church.

Her husband of 31 years, Howard Newsom, died in 1979. Her second husband, Edgar Young, died in 2008 after 24 years of marriage.

Survivors include three children, Kevin Newsom of Chicago, Heather Anthony of Goldsboro, N.C. and Nyna Werner of Columbia, Md.; a stepson, David Young of Falls Church, Va.; six grandchildren and three great- grandchildren; four sisters and one brother; Pat Marrero of Greencastle, Jane Greil of Indianapolis, Janet Barr of Fishers, Becky Neideffer of Tucson, Ariz. and Clyde Spencer of Greencastle.

There will be a celebration of her life at the Portland Mills Cemetery, Parke County, in the spring.