Emma Jean Newland

Emma Jean Newland 101, passed away on February 1O, 2026. She was born in Bates County, Missouri on June 16, 1924, to Emmett Sherod and Kate Faye Shannon. That same year they moved to a farm in Miami County, Kansas where she attended a one room schoolhouse in Jingo, Kansas and then attended Drexel, Missouri High School. After graduation from High School, she moved to Kansas City to attend Lathrop Trade School where she learned riveting, drilling, how to buck a rivet, and reading blueprints. August 8, 1942 she went to work for North American Aviation in Fairfax, Kansas to help build B-25 bombers for the war effort. She became a lead-man riveting on the tail flap and worked there until August 14, 1945 when the war ended. She met Allen Carell Newland at the end of the war and they married on September 3, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri. She then worked as a long-distance telephone operator until the birth of Allen Keith on July 21, 1947 and Beverly Kay on April 11, 1949. She returned to work in 1957 for Bendix and then Western Electric until her retirement in 1980. She is a member of Telephone Pioneers, CWA retirees club, and The Rosie Riveter Club. She received the Medal of Honor for Rosie Riveters in May of 2024. She was the family's genealogist and loved quilting. She is survived by a brother Cecil Shannon and wife Marlene, her son Allen Keith Newland and wife Donna, son Ryan Newland and wife Stacey, and their son Teague, Daughter Stephanie Berendzen and husband John, and their daughters Brooke, Lucy, and Jenna, and daughter Megan Newland and her son Mason and daughter Elizabeth. Her daughter Beverly Cowing and her husband Paul D. and their daughter Monica Kubinak and husband James, their son Douglas and his sons Oliver, Samuel, and Asa and a daughter Rose, and their son Jefferson and wife Brigitte and their daughters Nell and Quinn. Preceded in death by her parents, Emmett and Kate Shannon, her husband Allen C. Newland, her sister Lorene and husband Harold Hurst, and an infant granddaughter Melanie Cowing. Visitation will be at Speaks Suburban Chapel in Independence, Saturday, February 14, 2026 from 2:00 to 4:00. Burial will be at Rockville Cemetery, at a later date.  In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care.  Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.speakschapel.com (Arrangements: Speaks Suburban Chapel (816) 373-3600)