Jacqueline (Jackie) Lou Gallaher, passed away on Friday, 1 March, 2019, at the age of 85. She leaves behind her loving husband of 64 years, Edward Walter Gallaher, Sr. Jackie had suffered from Alzheimer’s and was lovingly cared for by Ed and the rest of her family, remaining her sweet and loving self the very end.
In addition to her loving husband, Ed, Jackie is survived by:

Her Daughter in law, Dawn Keyes Gallaher. Jackie’s son, Edward W. Gallaher, Jr., pre-deceased her.
Her Daughter, Kathy Lynn (Gallaher) Loyd, Kathy’s husband Eddie Joe Loyd, granddaughter Kacy Lynn (Loyd) Jackson, her husband Josh Jackson, their children, 2 of Jackie’s great grandchildren, Kaylie Marie Jackson and Karma Nykole Jackson;

Her Son, Thomas A. (Tag) Gallaher, his wife, Barbara Jeanne (Jeannie) (Oulla) Gallaher, Granddaughter Caroline Marie Gallaher and her children, 2 of Jackie’s Great grandchildren, Jude Adrienne Gallaher and Caleb Avery Gallaher and Granddaughter Stephani Nicole (Gallaher) Digweed, her husband Jonathan Alan Digweed, and their children, the other two of Jackie’s 6 great grandchildren, Alexander Michael Digweed and Sophia Gabrielle Digweed.

Her younger Brother, Dr. Donald Clifford (Doc) Newell, Jr., his wife Darlene L Newell, and their children (Jackie’s nephews) Dr. Ryan Newell (Wife Lisa, children Tucker, Trent, Ella & Owen) and Lee Newell (wife Dawn, son Tommy). And her Niece Mary Beth Gallaher. 

To view her and Ed's Memorial Celebration, follow this link:  https://youtu.be/lA7Ma8AdlT0&…  

Parts of Jackie’s story follow: Born 5/25/1933, she lived a life full of love and surrounded by family. Even through the ravages of her disease in her last years, she never lost her natural, kind and loving nature. She was born in Burlington Iowa to Genevieve (Newman) Kerr and Troy Kerr. Her mother passed away when Jackie was only 8 months old and Jackie moved to Portland, Maine, where she was adopted by her Aunt, Lucille (Newman, Dawson) Newell and Lucille’s husband Troy. After the death of Troy in December of 1941, Lucille married Dr. Donald (Doc) Clifford Newell Sr. in 1945, who also adopted Jackie and she grew up in Oak Hill, WV. Dr. Newell and Jackie shared a love for horses and Jackie’s family has enjoyed many stories of their jet-black thoroughbred, Dinah, and the massive Belgian horse, Barney.

Jackie went to the Greenbrier College for Women (GCW) in Sept 1951, graduating with a 2 year degree in 1953 and then attended Concord Teacher’s College in Athens, WV, for 1 year, leaving in May, 1954. GCW was in Lewisburg, WV and was close to the Greenbrier Military School and across the street from the Old Stone Presbyterian Church, where the cadets would march to worship Sunday nights. Mom had become friends with a cadet named Bill Trozzo, who was the roommate of one Ed Gallaher. One day, Bill said “Ed, you’ve got to meet this girl, you just have to meet this girl!” Ed came back to Greenbrier in 1953 to attend Bill’s graduation and there on the lawn at a ‘party house’ in Lewisburg, was Jackie Newell. Ed came up to her, in all sincerity, said, “I have been dying to meet you”, and began immediately to work on wooing her.

Thus commenced a romance through the postal service. Ed proposed to Jackie over the phone, refusing to hang up until she would give him an answer. Ed and Jackie were married on June 14th, 1954 at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Oak Hill WV, on blazing hot day. Ed remembers that for both bride and groom, it seemed like a very long ceremony, as they kneeled with sweat dropping from their chins. They thought they’d hidden their car successfully at a friend’s garage but some of Ed’s groomsmen from GA Tech broke in the garage, removing a few boards.
When the newlyweds got in the car and started it, it wouldn’t go anywhere… the boys had jacked it up on blocks about an inch off of the ground. By the time they got to Bluefield, WV, on their way to Kingsport, TN, the Roquefort cheese the boys had smeared on the engine block was very fragrant. First night of their honeymoon was in Kingsport, TN.

Jackie and Ed lived in Decatur GA while Ed finished his BS degree in Management and Jackie taught 1st grade at Forrest Park Elementary. This was to be a theme of Jackie’s life… loving children and pouring her love and joy of life into them. Their first son, Ed Gallaher (little Ed) was born on 5/4/55. Ed Sr. finished his degree and joined the Army in 1955 and was stationed in Iceland shortly after little Ed was born. On Christmas day, 1955, Jackie and her baby flew on a DC3 at 10,000 feet (the plane was not pressurized and had no Oxygen) to meet Ed in Iceland. It was dark and cold when she arrived and Jackie often said later, “If he wasn’t there when I got there, I was not going to get off of that plane.” Ed was there to meet her and she stayed. There the little family shared, a single room and shared a ½ bathroom with two other tenants in the home of Thorin Bernardsdottir (the Iceland tour is a hardship tour and families are not supported by the base infrastructure).

After about a year in Iceland, Jackie & Ed returned to the Atlanta area (Brookline Drive) where Ed finished his second degree – a BS in Industrial Engineering – From Georgia Tech. Jackie answered an ad from a window downtown looking for a receptionist/typist – a job she nailed, working for Otto the Orkin Man https://www.youtube.com/watch… (yes, the real, original Otto). There was a sign also for a garage apartment for rent in a florist’s shop. There they lived, blessed by the kindness of the owners of the shop. When Ed graduated in 1959, he got a job with Meade Paper Company and Jackie and he moved to Chillicothe OH, bought a house in the Chillicothe Manor and had Kathy Lynn Gallaher (Loyd) and Thomas A. (Tag) Gallaher in 1959 and 1960, respectively. Jackie was teaching school (head start classes) then and the family stayed in that area for about 6 years, including their last year or two at a home on Graves Road, including a pond, a stable and an ornery pony named Dusty (a gift from the family doctor).

In 1967, Ed landed a job with Bergstrom Paper Company and the family moved up to Neenah, Wisconsin, staying there from 1967-1972. Here Jackie and Ed became good friends with Jean and Cecil Hess and Jackie and Jean worked together with adults with severe mental and developmental challenges. Jackie and Ed remained friends with Jean and Cecil throughout their lives. Jackie finished her BS in English at the University of WI, Oshkosh (while raising 2 grade school children and one high school child. Here, also, Jackie became an ardent Green Bay Packers fan and was one of their most vocal cheerers through the rest of her life! Those were the days of Bart Star, Fuzzy Thurston, Ray Nitschke and other heroes of old.

Throughout the early years, Jackie and Ed always did family vacations – carrying their family across the US in various Dodge Station Wagons and even a pop-up camper for one memorable trip. In addition, frequent visits to see family in Oak Hill WV, and many a summer enjoying long warm days on Summersville Lake, WV, which Jackie dearly loved. She loved the water and her family, so a week of floating about in Summersville Lake with her family was almost heaven for Jackie.

In 1972, Bergstrom tasked Ed with taking over management of a paper plant in West Carrolton (Dayton) OH, and the family moved briefly to West Carrolton and then to Oakwood, OH. Here, with little Ed having returned to Wisconsin as an adult, Jackie took on a full time job with Meade Data Central, creator of LexisNexis https://www.lexisnexis.com/en… . Her boss was Jim McSweeny of Meade Corporation who said, “This project will be the lifeblood of the Meade Corporation.” Her first project was to work with University of Dayton students to markup law books, which were key-punched by teams in Korea as well as the USA. Her kids never lacked bags of punch-card chads to use as confetti at High School football games.

She and Ed enjoyed entertaining, loved their church at Oakwood United Methodist Church and worked hard, planning for the future. Daughter Kathy graduated High School in 1977 and son Tag graduated in 1978, at which time Jackie and Ed invested their life savings in starting up a vinyl glove manufacturing company, Phoenix Glove Company, in Andrews, South Carolina.

Jackie and Ed lived in Andrews for over 35 years, from August 1978 until September 2016. They became part of the fabric of that community and to this day are remembered and loved by many there. Jackie set herself apart in many ways including her involvement in Friends of the Library in Andrews – this started with her reading to children there, and eventually she helped raise money to build the new Library. One fund-raiser took on a life of its own, as Jackie, in association with the Andrews Rotary Club, found a way to bring Chubby Checker to the Andrews “Good Ol’ Days” celebration. The teams were trying to figure out how to raise some money when Jackie asked “Isn’t Chubby Checker from here?” She contacted him and he agreed to come and do a concert for $3,000. The town hosted a parade for him (he rode in Jackie’s red convertible) and after the concert Chubby told Jackie “I’m not going to charge you and I’ll come back and do a concert here each year for as long as you want me.” https://www.chubbychecker.com…

Jackie was the South Carolina International Trade Conference President in Charleston, SC. She was personally invited to take on this challenge by then representative of Maersk Shipping Lines and recipient of the Order of the Palmetto Award, Ron Plunkett. Jackie was also an author with an unpublished children’s book entitled “The Crippled Lamb” and an article published in the Georgetown Times’ Andrews Lifestyles paper on 12/21/1989, entitled “A Most Memorable Christmas.” Additionally, a story was published about Jackie in the Georgetown Times on March 30th, 1993, entitled, “Climbing Hills, with a smile and a whistle.” A Paul Harris fellow, Jackie also had a heart for the Rotary International’s program to eradicate Polio worldwide. She and Ed were recognized by The Andrews Rotary Club in 1990 with Citizen of the Year awards.

During this time Jackie and Ed also travelled widely, throughout Asia and Europe with work but also many trips to France. After a number of trips to various places in France, they began to visit primarily Normandy and Ammerschwihr (Alcase). In Ammerschwihr, they had made life-long friends with the family Binner (Joseph and Monique, their Daughter Beatrice, son Christian and their families). In Normandy Jackie and Ed were students of World War II – a time they witnessed as teenagers – and especially the D-Day invasion of Nazi occupied Europe by Allied Forces. Jackie and Ed have both made sure that many people – especially their kids and grand-kids – will “Never Forget.” Jackie spoke some French and met many people, never shy to say “Hello” or ask for directions. It was frequent that a local in the Normandy area would then ask, “Are you American?” and, given the answer, “Yes, we are,” would show absolute delight! They would share amazing, first hand stories of things that had happened during the war and events related to the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6th, 1944. Jackie and Ed would spend several days to a week or more at Hotel Du Casino in Verville Sur Mer (on Omaha Beach) every year for several decades, as long as she was able to make the trip.

Perhaps Jackie’s greatest impact on the city of Andrews was her Zacchaeus class at Trinity United Methodist Church where she and Ed attended regularly. Over more than 30 years, Jackie taught the 2- and 3-year old children about Jesus’ love for them. The pastor, Billy Milligan had asked her to do Children’s Moments soon after she and Ed had joined Trinity and shortly afterward, she began to teach. After enough years had passed, Jackie had graduates from her Zacchaeus class – now grown - bringing their own 2- and 3-year olds to the very same class. There was even a young adult Sunday School class (Lew Mills class) that started so that these young people, whose children would cry if they weren’t allowed to come to church to be with Ms. Jackie, would have something to do during that early hour before ‘big church.’

For those of us who mourn Jackie’s loss, we find comfort in countless memories of the loving, laughing, caring, wonderful woman who shared our lives. Whether giggling with the girls over a glass or two of champagne; or enjoying a day swimming in any water anywhere (but especially at Summersville Lake); or enchanting and being enchanted by any of the myriad children in her life; or picnicking in France; or singing a boisterous blessing over a meal (Yes Sir!): Jackie was surely one of the happiest, kindest, most loving people ever to walk this earth.

Jackie began her long battle with Alzheimer’s disease years before her death. Her incredible joy for life and love for those around her allowed her to be every bit as kind and loving through this battle as she was before the disease struck. Her husband Ed showed unfailing love to her, just as she had to him through their many years together. She died peacefully on March 1, 2019, surrounded by her family. Her impact on those of us who knew her continues to refresh us and to influence how we interact with and love others. She is sorely missed by those she has left behind, none more than Ed, who loves her as much today as he has throughout their lives together. We know she is in Heaven, singing with angels and no doubt spending time with the little children up there.

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