PIERRE, SD – Cecilia Newsam, 90, of Pierre died on Tuesday, October 7th at Edgewood Living in Pierre. A graveside service will be held at 1:30 Mountain Time on Thursday, October 16th at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis, SD Isburg Funeral Chapel has been placed in care of the arrangements.
Cecilia Agnes Lemieux Newsam was born on October 8, 1934, to Amos Lemieux and Elizabeth D’Haenens O’Brian in Ft. Pierre, SD. She was the third of nine children with four sisters (Nancy, Mary, Marcella, and Margaret) and four brothers (Thomas, Charles, Philip, and Ambrose). She grew up on a ranch along the Bad River in Van Metre, SD and attended school there until she moved to Ft. Pierre, SD to attend high school.
While attending high school, she boarded with the Jurgenson family trading housework and babysitting for her room and board. Shortly after graduation from high school, she met the love of her life, Charles “Bones” Newsam, at a dance in Van Metre.
They were married on December 11, 1953, and made their first home in a mobile home in Van Metre where Bones was a farmer and rural mail carrier. Five children, Marrion Effie, Lee Frank, Susan Marie, Jerald Leslie, and Randy James were born in quick succession. Following a fire that destroyed their mobile home, the family moved to the house on Jefferson Ave. in Murdo which would be their home for the next 16 years.
Clarence Jay was born in 1960 followed by Mary Jean in 1964 and Richard Dale in 1969. All throughout their growing up years, the Newsam home was often the after school hang out for neighborhood children. Bones was once heard to ask as he threaded his way through the little ones sitting on the floor in front of afternoon cartoons, “These aren’t all ours, are they?” Neighborhood kids were always sure of their welcome at Cecilia’s home. Cecilia was a busy stay-at-home mom during those years taking an active interest in her children’s activities, especially her sons’ participation in sports. Everyone who knew Cecilia knew she loved sports!
After the older ones had moved on to college or the military and the younger ones were in high school, she went to work. She was employed as a maid and later as a laundress at the Sioux Motel in Murdo for more than twenty years and always counted her employers, Donnie and Bonnie Hullinger, as friends.
Bones died of an aortic aneurysm while deer hunting with his nephew, Cliff Anderson, on her birthday, October 8, 1995. That great sorrow was followed by another with the death of her son, Lee, during a road accident on December 11, 2002. In spite of these, Cecilia carried on keeping busy with work, watching sports, and making and embroidering baby quilts both for her grandchildren and for Murdo babies. Many little ones have gone to sleep snug under one of her quilts. She was a big fan of dominos and played a weekly game with Murdo friends.
After breaking her hip in 2023, Cecelia moved to Edgewood Assisted Living in Pierre where she continued to pursue her handicrafts and her interest in sports. She passed away due to the complications of congestive heart failure one day before her 91st birthday on October 7, 2025.
Cecilia was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Hubert Newsam; her son, Lee Frank Newsam; her parents, Amos and Elizabeth Lemieux; her brothers, Thomas Lemieux, Charles Lemieux, Philip Lemieux, and Ambrose Lemieux; and her sisters, Nancy Lemieux Schuetz, Mary Lemieux Eberly, and Marcella Lemieux.
She is survived by her sister, Margaret Dayton of Bokelia, FL; three daughters, Marrion (Allen) Newsam Banks, Susan (Jerry) Freeman, and Mary (Toby) Knapple; four sons, Jerald (Darla) Newsam, Randy (Coral) Newsam, Clarence (Cindy) Newsam and Richard (Alice) Newsam; twenty-three grandchildren; thirty-six great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Cecilia will be remembered as a strong and cheerful woman who made the best of every situation life handed her. She was devoted to her family who are all grateful for the blessing of having her as mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

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