Hazel Newkirk

Hazel Newkirk, 76, of Cheney, WA passed away on August 11th at Hospice of Spokane’s (South) House from metastatic breast cancer. She chose not to go through yet another treatment after persevering through numerous diagnoses, debilitating treatments, and recoveries from breast cancer over thirty years. Hazel was a faithful, loving, and thoughtful Christian woman throughout her life and it showed in everything she did and the way she treated everyone. She will be remembered as an energetic, generous, and unwaveringly strong woman who remained devoted to the people in her life even through the most difficult hardships and losses in her life. Hazel enjoyed gardening, including growing roses, vegetables, herbs, and helping out at church and community gardens. She enjoyed listening to music, had a beautiful singing voice and sang with school, church and community performance groups. Her life’s passion was reading and teaching children who struggled with reading both in her classroom and privately. After her first cancer diagnosis and treatment, Hazel adopted a vegetarian, macrobiotic diet though continued to lovingly prepare traditional Italian Sunday dinners for friends and family. Along with her faith, Hazel’s priority in life was to actively love, support, and care for her family and friends. She did this in many ways. But most important of all was to build individual relationships through communication, prayer, and time spent together. Hazel was born in 1941 to Sam and Marguerite, both school teachers, in Long Beach, CA. She was raised in southern California, graduated from Palm Springs High School, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education, with Honors, from the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was during her time as an undergrad that she began working with the InterVarsity campus ministry that led to a lifetime of faith-based work inside and out of the church. Her family life began in 1969 when she married Jonathan and they moved to Washington, DC. There she taught school, assisted inner city children’s programs, and supported the Quaker church, non-violent, peace outreach. Three years later they moved to Schoharie County, New York where she taught school, tutored privately, was involved in community churches’ music and youth programs, and supported a successful community-wide effort to protect family farms and homes from a large public utility. It was while living in the rural Schoharie Valley that Benjamin was adopted from Quito, Ecuador and Timothy was born. The family of four moved to Pullman, WA in 1984. There, Jon and Hazel attended graduate school at Washington State University and Hazel earned her Master of Education degree. In 1990 after Jon and Hazel had both completed their graduate degrees, the family settled in Cheney and she began a 15-year teaching career as an elementary school reading specialist in Spokane’s Central Valley. Hazel’s lifelong dedication to serving others included leading the Divorce Recovery program at Spokane’s First Presbyterian Church for more than a dozen years following the end of her marriage. When Hazel retired from teaching she devoted her time to her sons, the births of her grand nephews, forming the new Latah Valley Presbyterian Church, and expanded summer stays with family and friends in West Yellowstone, MT. Hazel experienced great loss in the last three years of her life with the accidental death of Benjamin and the forced relocation, and resulting dissolution, of her Latah Valley church congregation by the Spokane Presbytery. Hazel is survived by her son Timothy, sister Ruth Mattice, niece Anne Strauch (Chris), and four grand nephews. She was preceded in death by her son Benjamin. A celebration of Hazel’s life will be held at 2 PM on Saturday, November 11th, in Cheney Congregational Church. 423 North Sixth Street. Donations in memory of Hazel’s life can be made to Christ Kitchen and your Local Red Cross.