One of five children born to Nesbit and Eliza Jane "Janie" Newton, she was raised in a strict household, but despite the fact that her family members possessed rather severe temperaments, she proved to be the sunshine piercing through the gloom, blessed with a kind and open heart that only grew with age. After graduating high school, she attended Georgia Teacher's College, which later became Georgia Southern. She met and fell in love with her future husband, Harold Bennett, upon making the move from her hometown of Brooklet to Savannah, Georgia and also began teaching 4th grade in the only school of the neighboring city of Richmond Hill. Less than content with the position, she decided to switch to kindergarten then finally to 1st grade, where she happily remained for approximately the next 40 years. In 1972, she was forced to retire and she helped care for her ailing husband who died five years later in 1977. She also helped her only daughter raise her two children during the latter half of the 70s and throughout the next decade, eventually having to move into a nursing home due to her own failing health. Riddled with Parkinson's disease and coronary problems, a heart attack finally claimed her in 1997, 20 years to the day her husband had passed.
One of five children born to Nesbit and Eliza Jane "Janie" Newton, she was raised in a strict household, but despite the fact that her family members possessed rather severe temperaments, she proved to be the sunshine piercing through the gloom, blessed with a kind and open heart that only grew with age. After graduating high school, she attended Georgia Teacher's College, which later became Georgia Southern. She met and fell in love with her future husband, Harold Bennett, upon making the move from her hometown of Brooklet to Savannah, Georgia and also began teaching 4th grade in the only school of the neighboring city of Richmond Hill. Less than content with the position, she decided to switch to kindergarten then finally to 1st grade, where she happily remained for approximately the next 40 years. In 1972, she was forced to retire and she helped care for her ailing husband who died five years later in 1977. She also helped her only daughter raise her two children during the latter half of the 70s and throughout the next decade, eventually having to move into a nursing home due to her own failing health. Riddled with Parkinson's disease and coronary problems, a heart attack finally claimed her in 1997, 20 years to the day her husband had passed.
