Randy Turner

Newton County Memories Randy Turner

In Newton County Memories, author Randy Turner, a veteran newspaper reporter and classroom teacher, offers stories about the people, places and activities that made living in Newton County, Missouri memorable. Those who have lived in the area can relive an era before texting and binge watching, when evening entertainment included cruising the Neosho Square, sports including baseball and the dangerous, but addictive bicycle soccer and meeting friends at the Brown Derby and Reta's. The memorable characters profiled in Newton County Memories include a 400-pound police chief who never had trouble maintaining law and order, the "cold-blooded assassin" who shot the student council president, the coach who started a civil war in his family by having his brother intentionally walked with the bases loaded and the woman mayor who was a Mann. Turner also profiles some of the people who inspired others, including unforgettable classroom teachers, a breast cancer survivor who helped others for more than three decades after her initial diagnosis and a 20-year-old murder victim whose life and poetry live on more than four decades later. Newton County Memories is an engaging trip down memory lane even. Turner captures the era in a way that will ensure these people will remain in readers' memories, even if they are reading about them for the first time.