Nancy Lee Williams Markham Newberry

Published 12:24 pm Monday, August 10, 2020

Nancy Newberry passed away on August 5, 2020 at Dominion Senior Living in Johnson City, Tenn. She was 97 years young.

Born and raised in Elkton, Ky., she was an en point ballerina as a child and a varsity cheerleader for five years. After high school she attended Stephens College for Women in Columbia, Mo., and the University of Kentucky in Lexington, majoring in fashion design. For many years she was the women’s clothing buyer for family-owned John N. Williams Company in Elkton; also, when she moved to Russellville, Ky., she dabbled in antiques and owned a shop there. Famous for her Derby parties and good food, Nancy and her husband hosted 16 of them through the years. Eventually, a cookbook was published dedicated to those events and her recipes. She and her sister became longtime members of the National Society of Magna Charta Dames. Her church affiliation was the Russellville Baptist Church.

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents, John N. Williams Jr. and Marion Trabue Williams, and a sister, Frances Marion Williams, all of Elkton; her first husband, Roland H. Markham, Hendersonville, N.C., and more recently, husband Leslie Redford Newberry, Russellville, Ky.

She is survived by her daughter, Lynn M. Roe, Johnson City; two grandsons, David C. Roe (Kimberly), Nashville, Tenn., and John Leslie Roe (Jennifer), Arrington, Tenn.; and two granddaughters, Kathryn Frances Roe and Caroline Ellen Roe, also of Nashville.

There was a graveside service in Elkton’s Glenwood Cemetery on Sunday, August 9, at 2 p.m. central time, under the direction of Latham Funeral Home.