New Cumberland inducted two individuals, one living, one deceased, into its Hall of Fame Sunday
Emily Cullen Fields – Hall of Fame Inductee Posthumously
The late Emily Cullen Fields was born on October 19, 1925, in New Cumberland. She was the daughter of Bennett S. and Edna Joy Cullen. The happy event was reported in the local newspapers – except the paper reported “the little fellow is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Cullen.”
In addition to her parents and her older sister, Madeline Cullen Geiman, Emily grew up in a large and loving extended family. She had a number of first cousins among the Cullen and the Joy families, most of whom also lived on Commerce Street as children.
She graduated from New Cumberland High School in 1943, and attended Steubenville Business College, afterwards working for a time at the Monongahela Power Company office in Weirton.
On May 26, 1946, Emily married William R. Fields, also of New Cumberland. They were blessed to celebrate 67 anniversaries before he died on Sept. 3, 2013.
Emily and Bill were the parents of three children. Their firstborn, Joy Marlene Fields passed away at birth on Feb. 14, 1949. They were then blessed with two more children, Diane Fields Bowers (husband Kevin) of New Cumberland and William Greg Fields of Houston, TX (wife Kathy) and four grandsons: Will Fields of Dallas, TX, Ben (wife Catherine) of Houston, John (wife Erika) of Oklahoma City, OK, and Scott of Columbus, Ohio. John and Erika are expecting a baby girl later this month, the first great-grandchild for Emily.
Emily also had 9 nieces and nephews, and a number of great-nieces and nephews.
When Diane and Greg were still in grade school, Emily began taking classes at West Liberty State College, with the goal of becoming a teacher. She graduated from West Liberty in 1967 with a degree in elementary education, specializing in English and Art. She began teaching 3rd grade at New Cumberland Elementary School that fall. She continued to teach 3rd grade and then 2nd grade, before retiring in June of 1987.
Emily lived most of her adult life on Ridge Avenue, still surrounded by relatives whose names would be familiar to most of you, including several already enshrined in the Hall of Fame. She was an 80-year member of the New Cumberland Christian Church, a long-time member of the New Cumberland PTA both as mother and teacher, and a leader of the New Cumberland Brownie troop and then the Campfire troop for several years during the 1960s. She took the Campfire troop camping at Tomlinson Run State Park on several occasions, as well as numerous other activities. She enjoyed serving her community and her church.
Her primary hobbies were knitting and genealogy. Over the years she taught several others to knit, including Diane. She and Diane, along with cousin Wadeanne Nardo, traveled to Washington D.C. and over the tri-state area to do research on family history. Emily was a member of the Ft. Steuben Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, as well as a former member of the WV Alpha Tau chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa Society for women educators. For a time, she was also a member of the New Cumberland Young Woman’s Club.
Emily and her Cullen first cousins celebrated “cousins day” almost monthly for years after her retirement from teaching, going to lunch at various restaurants around the area and enjoying their time together. Despite some health problems, Emily remained active until a few weeks before she passed away at the age of 91, on March 10, 2017. Her funeral was held at the Christian Church on March 14, officiated by her son-in-law Rev. Kevin Bowers, her cousin Rev. Kenneth Joy, and Rev. Rick Tinsky. She was buried with her husband and her eldest daughter at the New Cumberland Cemetery
Mary Dorothy Jones Hawks
Mary Dorothy (Jones) Hawkes was born on June 7, 1939 to William D and Mary (Bourne) Jones. At the time of her birth her father insisted that she be named Mary because she was born on her mother’s birthday. Her middle name was for Mary’s best school friend. Instead of being called by her first name she was always called Dorothy to avoid confusion at family gatherings with relatives.
Dorothy had a brother , Donnie who died in 1992. He was a professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and a nephew, Todd who died in 1993, who was a lawyer in San Diego, California. She was very proud of both of them.
She has a sister-in-law Barbara who is the sister she never had, a nephew Brad and Stacy and 3 great nieces, Anna, Lydia and Claire who live in San Clemente, California that she is very proud of also.
Dorothy attended New Cumberland Schools grades 1 through 12 where her favorite subject was band, she loved playing those John Phillip Sousa marches and to this day loves to hear them. After graduation from NCHS she attended Steubenville Business College where she completed the Office Management Course. In 1959 she was hired at Weirton Steel Company in the Manifest/Invoicing Department where the invoices for all of the steel shipments were processed. During the 36 years at Weirton Steel she had several promotions and retired as a Senor Invoice Clerk.
After retiring, Dorothy got more involved with the organizations that she belonged to by volunteering for more projects since she had the time to work on them. Among those that received her volunteerism are: The New Cumberland Young Woman’s Club which is no longer an active club, The Woman’s Club of New Cumberland which is also no longer an active club, The New Cumberland Lions Club and the New Cumberland Hall of Fame. She even volunteered to fill the vacancy of secretary at her church, St. Thomas’ Episccopal when the secretary left, where she volunteers to help with the church’s Annual Peach Festival and Christmas Bazaar. Most recently she agreed to be the president of the New Cumberland Lions Club. She has also served as president several times for both Woman’s clubs and served as president of the Northern District of the West Virginia General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
After retirement an old friendship was renewed and in October 1999 she married George Hawkes from Toronto, Ohio. They made their home in the house where Dorothy was born and were very happy until 2020 when George died due to complications of Parkinson’s.
To fill whatever free time she has, she enjoys doing crafts and most recently made crocheted lap robes for a friend in the Tri State Marines Auxiliary that were given to veterans at Christmastime.
Dorothy still lives in the house where she was born with her 4-legged roommate, Snoopy, and says that she would never leave New Cumberland, which she calls “her town” because her roots go to deep and besides who will take over her many hours of volunteering.