Page 48 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2023 - Online Magazine
P. 48
Exceptional
SENIORS
Pickleball
for the WIN
Jim and Bonnie Newville
by Stephanie Holland
t age 84, Bonnie Newville
is still playing pickleball
Aand sharing her 20-year
love of the sport with others as she
routinely plays three times a week providential timing brought them in the field of electronics—from
here in Lubbock.
together in a miraculous way. They technician to technical writer and
Bonnie was born near Kinross, Iowa, both attended Hoover High School later to electrician—eventually
and her husband Jim was born in San Diego, California—although brought them to Dallas, Texas.
in Phoenix, Arizona—but God’s neither had classes together nor Along the way, they lived in League
met on campus. They first City, Houston, and Lubbock (the
noticed each other at a first time). Then they trekked north
surprise 16th birthday party to Oklahoma City and Wichita,
for Bonnie in San Diego Kansas, before making their way
in 1955. Their respective back to Lubbock in 1983 to help care
families had each relocated for a one-year-old granddaughter,
there for only a short Emily, who was born with cystic
time, before returning to fibrosis.
their original locales, so
the meeting of the two During that time, Bonnie worked
sweethearts in that tiny for Sitton Drilling and Texas Tech
window of time makes their University, while Jim worked for
story rather remarkable. both Lubbock Electric and Mandry
Electric companies. They both
The pair were married two retired early and decided to return
years later at the tender age to the area of their youth—relocating
of 18 in Jim’s hometown, to Desert Hot Springs, California, in
on December 28, 1957— 1999. Occasionally returning over
and exactly a year later, the years, they brought the game of
their first-born, Stephanie, pickleball, which they had learned
entered the world. in the retirement community, back
to Lubbock, and taught it to their
Jim’s varied lines of work daughter, Stephanie, and her soon-
48 Lubbock Senior Link
