Darlyn Wade McNew-Connerley

Born November 20, 1940 in Lebanon, Russell County, Virginia to Z. Louise Patrick and Marion Pierce McNew. Darlyn had one sister Marion but she always called her Patsy. When Darlyn's father passed away she was too young to remember him. Darlyn and her sister, Patsy, lived with both sets of grandparents for a little while.

According to Patsy, Darlyn was all girl. She did everything a little girl would do. She had blonde hair and she hated bugs and spiders. When she had tea parties, Patsy would put a bug in the cup for Darlyn to see before she poured the tea. Patsy loved to tease Darlyn.
When Darlyn was ironing, her brother decided to put a bug on her and of course she screamed, like girls do, and dropped the iron on Patsy, who was bending over at the time and of course Patsy was so angry she chased Jimmy and Dottie around the house and then outside. They finally calmed down and things were okay. I'm just glad they are all ok.

Louise, Darlyn's mother, moved to Greenville, MI with the girls when they were small. Louise worked in Greenville, MI as a factory worker. When older, Louise got an apartment with the girls back in Blufield, Virginia. About the age of 11, Darlyn's mother married Woodrow Wilson (Johnny) Hale. They had 2 more children, James W. Hale and Kathryn Hale.

Darlyn lived in Richmond, Va and worked there and met her soon to be husband. Dave Powell. She was living with a cousin and they both married friends.
David was in the military. They had one son, Marc while living in Virginia. David was transferred to Germany and while they were there Travis was born. He was discharged from the army and they moved to Michigan where David's family lived.

Darlyn got a divorce from David. She stayed in Michigan for a while and then she moved back to Virginia with both of the boys where her family was from. She worked many different jobs to support her and the boys. Travis stayed with Darlyn for over a year and then he moved back to live with his father in Michigan. He was very unhappy in the south.

Darlyn worked for Hardee's Restaurants and as she grew in the field she moved many places in Virginia and Kentucky. Patsy would visit her quite often when she could. She was very close to her family and family was very important. They enjoyed a lot of camping and vacations together for many years.

Marc moved to California and she eventually followed him in the late 80's. She had her first husband's relatives lived here too. She loaded up a truck and went through Tennessee to see the home of Elvis Presley and a lot more stops along the way like the national parks and state parks. This was her childhood dream coming true. She was very adventurous person. She lived with one of David's relative's when she first came to CA. until she got her own place to live. It was very hard for her to get her own credit even though she paid all of the bills and was on her own. She finally did get her own apartment.

Church is where most of us met Darlyn. Bob and I met her at church and then we started doing her income taxes. We did those for many years and continued to be great friends for many years to come. We knew her for about 20 years.

Darlyn was in charge of the Foothills Ward Campout one year. We went to Sugar Pine Point and were having a great time. Darlyn had a lot of different activities for us to do. The next day a Ranger came around and told us that the animals, I think it was either the squirrels or chipmunks, had bubonic plague and we had to move to another campground. We were all so disappointed that some of the campers went home but not the strong ones. We were moved to Donner Camp Ground and finished the weekend.

Darlyn was such a happy person. She would do anything for anyone. Everyone was her brother or sister and that can get you into trouble sometimes. I found this out when she had to go to the hospital and the doctor called me and of course I had to tell him the story about church sisters. He just laughed and I told him he needed to call her real sister, Patsy.

Darlyn was on her own for some time and then she met Dave Connerley. She and Dave were married in the fall of 1991 while she was living in Foothills Ward. They did a lot of dancing, hiking and other things before they were married. They also had a wonderful life together doing things they loved together. Darlyn lost Dave on Oct. 2, 2016.

They lived with Dave's mother because he was taking care of her. Next they moved into an apartment and met a young family and got to be great friends with them. Susan became her adopted daughter and the children became her grandchildren. Darlyn had no grandchildren of her own.

Darlyn had several dogs. She had one by the name of Stevie, a black dog named after Stevie Wonder because it was blind. She also had Sweetie Pie who was the cutiest white dog. She would sometimes put coloring on its hair like pink. Darlyn had reached over to help her dog, Sweetie Pie, and she fell and broke her neck. She was so mad because now she couldn't drive and had to depend on someone else to help her. She hated the neck brace because it would rub on her neck. When I would pick her up for church I would go into the house and put cotton under the brace so it wouldn't rub on her neck.

Darlyn also loved to paint. If you went into her home you would see paintings on her walls. She loved to garden and had a huge garden in her back yard.
She loved to sing and joined the ward choir. She loved writing and especially poems. Darlyn loved having the missionaries over for meals.

I asked people to send me some stories about Darlyn. Here are a few:

Pat Morford:
I mentioned to my daughters about a lady in my ward that had fallen while taking care of her disabled dog and had broken her neck. I was appalled that Darlyn took that much risk with her own life it seemed to me. So, my daughters listened to my story and they were amused that her name was Darlyn McNew Connerely. So when she moved into their Ward and got up and bore her testimony they told me that she was in their ward.
The one thing that I could say about Darlyn was that she loved to go shopping. One time when I took her to an appointment she asked me if we could stop at a store. Now, that time I thought Darlyn was somewhat disabled. She had broken her neck and I think she had a handicap sticker that we used. She wanted to go to Walmart and pick up just a few things, she said. I stayed with her to help her reach the things down low and up high because she had this collar around her neck. Well it wasn't just a few things that she wanted to get because she eventually took off by herself clear across the store and I could not find her. I was having a hard time doing that much standing and waiting so I mentioned it to a worker that I had lost this little lady. She was easy to spot because she had this collar around her neck. Darlyn had gone clear to the other end of the store and was looking for items that she wanted to buy. I ended up finding her, thanks to the worker, and we continued to shop for quite a while longer. I would say we were in the store almost an hour. When we got to her home I helped her carry in all this stuff that she bought which were full bags. I was exhausted.
She held an estate sale when she decided to sell her home. I took Shelly, my daughter, there because I was sure that there were things Darlyn was selling that Shelly needed. Darlyn did not accept any money for the things that we took. I was ok with that because I had taken Darlyn to many appointments and she had said that she would buy me lunch, but it never worked out.

Carol Bauer:
At church one day Darlyn saw me trudging up the little hill that is in our parking lot to get into the building. Darlyn saw me struggling with my walker but there was no other way that I could get into the building. Darlyn insisted in getting me to my car after church so I wouldn't have to deal with that little hill. I gave her my keys and thanked her and had a chuckle as she came around the bend with my car. I could barely see her drive up as she could just see over the steering wheel of my car. She will always be important to me as she lived right down the road. We always teased each other and enjoyed serving in the Primary together. I miss her.

Doreen Rabe White:
I want to share a fun fact she told me when I was visiting her one day... we are kindred motorcycle sisters!!! Yep!!! She used to ride her dirt bike in her home town . We always winked about that! She was so good to Karyn when we would go over and wash her sweet little doggie ? (Stevie)

Gayle Peacock:
She was always willing and happy to have Bonnie and I come over for lunch and to visit. Gayle was one of our Senior Ward Missionaries.
Crissy Klapheck:
She loved it when the youth came over to her house. We would go do service and she always would have ice cream for them after they worked.

Marc: Darlyn's son:
A lot of people have birthmarks. Well mother had a special one on the top of her head. It was red and shaped like a large strawberry. The pores where her hair grew looked exactly like strawberry seeds. This was so embarrassing to her that Marc's grandmother told her the story about herself. She said she loved strawberries so much that while she was pregnant with her that was a strawberry growing large and she was just waiting for the right day, right time and size for her to pick and eat. Well her twin brother knew what she was doing and just when it was ready to pick and savor the strawberry, he went out to the garden and picked the strawberry and ate it right in front of his sister. Marc's grandmother was so angry with him that the thought of that strawberry just went inside her and connected to Darlyn. After that Darlyn was very proud of her strawberry birthmark.
Mom was a very Strong and stubborn person.

Kathy, the youngest sister:
Everyone used to call Darlyn Dottie for short except for her brother in law. One time she had a boyfriend pick her up for a date but he didn't come up to the door he just yelled "Sug" From that point on her brother in law called her "Sug"

Beth, Darlyn's niece:
Dottie couldn't make it to my wedding due to Dave being sick. To show her love and support, she dressed up in the dress she would have worn and sent me the picture on my wedding day.
When she was staying with her mom when I was a kid, she and I used to play outside together.

Susan Stone:
I was directing the ward choir and I had four daughters and two sons at the time and they were all young and we were in the military and without grandparents at the time and I stood up and I said if there's anyone that needs some extra hugs and kisses, I've got six beautiful children that would love to give them away. We could use a grandma and grandpa and after choir practice Grandma Darlyn and Grandpa Dave were there for us. Grandma Darlyn made a beeline for me and then everything was beautiful after that.
There was one Thanksgiving we went to her house and had dinner. After the turkey was eaten the whole family could not stop laughing . Every single person that took a part of the turkey laughed for hours after we found that Grandma had cooked the turkey on a low heat overnight. I have no idea what that did to the turkey but we could not stop laughing.
One of the things that my children will laugh and laugh at and after talking to her sister, come to find out this happened to her and her family as well. All these years Grandma Darlyn would send these care packages at Christmas. They would be under the Christmas tree. We became very aware of what we were in for when we opened those gifts because when we opened those gifts there were all kinds of unusual interesting trinkets. Things no one would ever think of and where she got them from. How she came up with that idea I will never forget them and we love.
For the birthdays it was always a great big, huge round chocolate chip cookie.
I want to thank everyone for all of the information that was given to me.

It was my pleasure being able to help serve Darlyn today. I love and care for her so much. I will miss her and so will her family. We will see you again.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen

Written by Juanita Schultz