Of everyone in his family, my dad is said to be most like his grandfather (above, right). In personality, I mean. Not in appearance.
The elder Newton apparently was so severe and domineering that his wife, Louise (above, left; not to be confused with Great Aunt Louise), rejoiced when her hearing started to go. No longer did she have to adjust her bathroom breaks to his schedule or listen to his lectures about household finances or how to buy cotton. She just turned down the volume on her hearing aid and moved through her days unmolested.
After they sold their house in the Delta, and moved down to live near my dad’s parents on the Gulf Coast, she swore she’d never speak to her husband again. And she stuck to it. She stayed in her apartment, reading romance novels and watching soap operas and talking walks alone on the beach. She never visited him in the nursing home. She even declined to attend his funeral.
