Ethel Isabella Newell
Dec. 2, 1947-May 19, 2025
Olympia, Washington
Ethel Isabella Newell, affectionately known as Nonna and Big E, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, passed from this life peacefully in her sleep at home with her husband by her bedside on the morning of May 19, 2025. She lived a full, abundant life to the very end, despite having ovarian cancer for the past 4 years.
The youngest of three daughters, Ethel was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to Truman Burch Nold and Louise Gatrell Nold. In 1949, the family moved to Fairfax County, VA, where Ethel and her sisters spent many hours playing in the woods, hiking and riding horses. In 1960 the family moved to idyllic farm country and apple orchards near Winchester, VA. Ethel’s family had deep ties in the apple business as orchardists, and as a young girl she loved roaming the orchard hills with her two dogs. Ethel graduated from Handley High School and attended the University of Mary Washington, later transferring to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where she graduated with honors and earned a BA degree in Art History.
Early in college, Ethel met her future husband, Robert Yates Newell, IV, “Bobby,” on a blind date arranged by her sister, Barbara. Ethel and Bobby were married in the Sir Christopher Wren Chapel on the William & Mary campus in 1970, the night before their graduation. They created lasting memories in the early years of their marriage, lived in several great cities. Ethel put her degree and passion for art history to work at the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio, TX, The Smithsonian Institute National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the MIT Historical Collections in Cambridge, MA, and as a docent for the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, CA.
In 1978, Ethel and Bobby moved to San Rafael, CA, later moving with their three young boys to Portola Valley, CA, where they enjoyed many years of seemingly non-stop adventures together. Ethel loved travel, adventure of all kinds, and was fearless. As an adult, she had the courage to pursue many new sports, including skiing, backpacking, camping, rafting, boating and fishing. She traveled throughout the US and Europe, as well as to Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Tunisia. Ethel was also an avid hiker and particularly loved walking the coastal beaches of California and Washington, as well as those of North Captiva Island, Florida, where she enjoyed shelling, hiking and, more recently, chasing ghost crabs with her grandchildren.
Throughout her adult life, Ethel became increasingly committed in her faith, trust and hope in Jesus Christ. She committed herself to being an overcomer by trusting in Jesus and his promises. She was motivated and inspired to glorify God through her life as well as in her death. She was a student of the Bible and was committed to the power of prayer. For many years, Ethel was a leader in Bible Study Fellowship and was transformed by her study and application of the Scriptures in her life. With just one other woman, she founded a prayer group, Moms in Touch, which quickly grew to include many others and continued for 20 years as these women prayed weekly for their children, their children’s teachers, schools and administrators. Ethel had the wisdom and heart to pray for her sons’ future wives who are examples of God’s goodness in answering her prayer. After her sons had grown and moved away, she became active in marriage mentoring for newly engaged and married couples and continued in a number of prayer ministries.
In 2018, Bobby and Ethel left California and moved to homes in Olympia, WA, and Reno, NV, where they could be closer to their sons and their wives, Robert Yates Newell, V, “Quint” (Kimberly Matheson), David Burch (Katherine Thurston), Matthew Byrnes (Natalie Agbayani), and ten grandchildren, Teo Thurston, Sierra Louise, Siena Grace, Kanoa Joshua, Charlie Trey, Simon Byrnes, Lily Noelani, Micah Kawika, Kaia Elise and Berdeen Isabella. Ethel joyfully learned of an eleventh grandchild on the way, a boy due to be born in October of this year.
A beautiful woman with a radiant smile and eyes that sparkled, Ethel was extraordinary. She was a woman of outstanding character, committed to her faith in Jesus and a dedicated servant of his to her family, friends and neighbors. She was a consummate homemaker and host, welcoming all who came into her home with dignity and respect, as well as a gracious smile and superb home-cooked meals. As an outstanding cook herself, she made a point of teaching her sons to be skilled cooks, an attribute they have each carried into their own married lives. Her homes were always warm and welcoming with creative flair and understated elegance. Ethel had a huge capacity to love her family and was very intentionally active in the lives of her grandchildren. Throughout her life, she enjoyed art and music and was a gifted writer who kept extensive journals.
After Ethel received her diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer in 2021, one of her friends asked Ethel what she could do for her. When she responded that she could pray for her, this friend organized a regular ZOOM prayer gathering which included Ethel’s sons and their wives, some of her grandchildren, several close friends and extended family members. This prayer group continued for nearly four years, initially meeting weekly, then monthly, then back to weekly. For the participants in these prayer gatherings, the experiences were life-changing, bolstering and broadening each person’s faith, through the significance of prayer as well as by Ethel’s grace, courage and faith in the face of the challenges of cancer. To say she passed peacefully is an understatement. Through her life’s journey of faith and trust in Jesus, she was not afraid, and she was not defeated by her diagnosis. She was a light and passed with an unflinching confidence that her eternal life in her Father’s house was about to begin.
Ethel is survived by Bobby, her beloved husband of 55 years, her three sons and their wives, all ten grandchildren, her sister, Barbara, and her husband, T. Destry Jarvis and her brother-in-law Ronald Williamson, and she is also survived by her loving extended family and a host of long-time friends,and is predeceased by her sister, Annett Nold.
An informal outdoor Celebration of Life gathering in Ethel’s memory is set for 3:00PM on June 22, 2025, at Tahoe Forest Church in Truckee, California. If you wish to remember her with a gift, in place of flowers, please kindly consider a contribution in Ethel’s memory to the Olympia Union Gospel Mission https://ougm.org/donate/ or to YoungLife, Olympia https://greaterolympia.younglife.org/. Ethel’s family wishes to thank the physicians and nurses at Kaiser Permanente, Providence St. Peter’s Hospital and the nurses and staff of Assured Hospice, Olympia, for the exceptional care Ethel received.
