Avid reader. Friendly. Down-to-earth. Particular in his words. Always willing to lend an ear or a helping hand. Green thumb. Strong as an ox. Intelligent and like a computer. Good, honest and hardworking.

These are all words used by family members to describe the late Jimmy Newby of the Sardis Springs area on the outskirts of Athens. Newby died Feb. 27 at the age of 75.

Newby was a well-known member of the community, and from the outpouring of calls, texts and emails of support and love that nephew Jerry Allen Newby said the family has received since his passing, Jimmy is sure to be missed by many.

Jimmy helped run Newby Farms with his brother Jerry, sons John and James, nephew Jerry Allen and niece Elizabeth Newby Crow. He lived and worked on farms in Columbia and Elkton, Tennessee, and Sardis Springs in Limestone County.

Growing up

Jimmy was born April 21, 1945, in Columbia, Tennessee, the son of James and Martha Newby. He grew up helping his family tend to their dairy farm and baling hay along with his brother Jerry. They also had a sister named Susan.

Jerry said Jimmy had a strong work ethic, like their father and grandfather. Jerry said Jimmy learned to drive a tractor at a young age, something their father and grandfather never did.

“We’d haul all the hay,” Jerry said. “Jimmy was the baler and a pretty good mechanic. He was a smart man, a lot smarter than I was. We were blessed. We had a good momma and daddy and good grandmamas and granddaddies, and Daddy taught us what was right and wrong.”

Jerry said when Jimmy was 12 and himself 9, they began working 3 acres of cotton. By the next year, the plot expanded to 8 acres, and by the third year, the brothers were working 19 acres of the crop. Jimmy would go on to gin cotton, something he did for more than 50 years before retiring in 2017.

Eventually, the family moved to Limestone County, where Jimmy began attending Athens High School as a ninth grader. Despite not growing up in the city, Jimmy was elected as class president his senior year in 1963.

“To not to grow up in Athens and them elect him, I thought that was pretty special,” Jerry Allen said.

After high school, Jimmy served in the National Guard for six years. He trained at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

“When Jimmy graduated high school, we bought a cotton picker,” Jerry said. “Then, the next year, we helped build the gin down here. Jimmy ginned all the time from then on. He would take care of the dairy while we were picking the cotton. Jimmy was a good example for me and Susan.”

Jimmy attended Athens College while a member of the Guard, and it was here that he would meet his future wife, Martha. They were married in January 1975 and had been together for 46 years when Jimmy died.

Working the land

Jimmy bought his first farm in Limestone County in 1967, which is known today as Newby Farms.

“We started with a one-row cotton picker,” Jerry said. “After a few years, bought a farm in 1967, and it was a complete flop for cotton that year. We’ve added land as we went along. We got the idea people wanted to rent to us because we were so young, so we tried to buy land.”

He then bought a farm in Tennessee in 1973. Cotton and row crops remained a big part of the business and still do today.

Jerry Allen said his father and uncle worked hard to get the farm going and maintain it.

Over the years, Jimmy’s sons John and James would come to help on the farm, as well as Jerry’s son Jerry Allen and daughter Elizabeth. Jimmy helped his daughter Leigh Anne Toone get into the poultry business, where she remains.

When he wasn’t farming, Jimmy spent time on boards for Limestone County Soil and Conservation, Limestone Farmers Cooperative, Alabama Farmers Cooperative and Nationwide Insurance.

John, Jerry and Jerry Allen each told The News Courier on Wednesday a story they had heard about a fellow farmer working with Jimmy.

The pair had worked until it was too dark one night, and the fellow decided he would beat Jimmy to work the next morning.

They said the man found Jimmy with a flashlight in hand, greasing the planter the next day. The man once again resolved to beat Jimmy to work the next day, but upon arriving at 4:30 a.m., the man was again greeted by the sight of Jimmy already at work.

They said the man decided to give up from there.

“You couldn’t beat him to work, and you couldn’t outwork him,” Jerry Allen said.

“We would leave the house before daylight and sometimes get home way after dark,” Jerry said. “Some neighbors would say Jimmy had planted more cotton before they got started than they would plant that day.”

Remembering the man

John said his father was very particular with his words when talking to people.

“Somebody would come in here to talk to him, and he might sit here and not say a word for 30 minutes,” John said. “He was listening. Then he would think. He would finally say something, and usually when he said something, it was pretty profound. He always tried to measure his words.”

John said his father liked to get out on the weekends and visit with people when he wasn’t too busy.

“On Sunday, me and him would get in his truck, if we weren’t working, and we’d go around and see a lot of older people,” John said. “He’d check on them, and that struck me. Not that they were in a bad way or anything, he just wanted to visit with them.”

Elizabeth said her uncle loved to meet with his friends in the community at the store or at the diner. She said sometimes he would stop in two or three places to see them all.

John described his father as a humble and very grateful man who would do anything for anybody if he could. John also said Jimmy had a magnetic personality, and people would love to talk to him.

“When he came into a room, everybody would come speak to him,” John said. “He was a people person.”

James recounted a story of his time playing college football on scholarship at North Carolina State University. He said his dad would drive up and watch as many games as he could.

“He would wait on me to get out of locker room, no matter how long it took, and by then, he would be talking to five or six other players,” James said. “They might be from completely different backgrounds than us, from the inner city in Miami with neck tattoos, but several of them came to love talking to him.”

The collector

When he wasn’t farming, meeting with friends or helping out his family, Jimmy “loved to run a garden tiller,” John said.

Elizabeth said Jimmy grew all types of summer vegetables but would grow many tomatoes.

“He loved sharing his harvest with all his friends and family,” she said.

Jerry said his brother had a green thumb and could make anything grow. He would also know how to fix issues with a crop that wasn’t growing properly.

“He had a good feel for growing anything,” Jerry said.

This included growing trees of all kinds, all over Newby Farms.

“We’d be driving down the road, and he’d say, ‘Hold on a minute.’ And he’d take a shovel and dig an oak tree out of a ditch and take it with him,” John said. “I bet he’s planted thousands of trees.”

His family members said Jimmy also loved to collect things — antique plows, old tractors, old hand tools, pots, pans, pressure cookers, anvils, vices, garden hoes, you name it.

Jimmy would often visit a local weekly trade day, and Jerry Allen said there was “no telling” what he might come back with.

On top of all the material items, his family said Jimmy collected friends. They said he knew people from all over the country, especially in Alabama and Tennessee. He might strike up a conversation with a complete stranger, no matter where they were at, because he liked meeting and talking with people.

Jerry said he and his brother worked hard so that the next generation would have an easier time than they did, and Jimmy’s legacy lives on in the family members who continue to work the land.