Tonyja Kay Newbold
September 5, 1941 – February 9, 2024

Tonyja Kay Newbold

SEPTEMBER 5, 1941 – February 9, 2024

Tonyja Kay Newbold, 82, passed away peacefully in the company of loved ones at her home in Boise, Idaho on February 9, 2024. She was loved by everyone who knew her and will be greatly missed.

Tonyja was born September 5, 1941, to Glen Parry and Ora Williams Jones in Malad City, Idaho. She was the oldest of seven to a large Welsh family. She learned many homemaking skills at an early age. Her dad was gone for extended periodsworking road construction. She became a great help to her mother and her siblings and learned to “oversee” (sometimes referee) the other kids. She was generous, caring, and willing to help anyone whenever she could. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints, holding several leadership positions, and provided service to her family and others in her community.

Growing up, she attended and graduated from Malad schools. She was the one whose name no one could spell or pronounce correctly; often called “Tony-juh” instead of “Ton-yuh.”Unfortunately, her teachers learned her name all too well. She played piano and was a talented Tap and Ballet dancer. Her dance group once performed on KSL TV’s “Uncle Roscoe’s Playtime Party.” She was a talented seamstress and made several clothes for her family and friends. She was skinny and always smiling. In high school, she picked up the nickname “Bony Maroni,” a song made famous by Ritchie Valens in 1958. The opening line is “I ‘gotta’ girl named Bony Maroni; she’s as skinny as a stick of macaroni.” That stuck for a while.

She had an affinity for wasps. She and her friend, Marie Abbott, climbed a neighbor’s fruit tree and discovered a wasp’s nest. They came down very fast, with a few hitchhikers. Her mom carefully helped comb both dead and live ones from her hair.She was also the first in the family to get a bicycle; it was green and she would give her younger siblings rides on the back fender; but that seemed to end after the bad incident with her sister Tamara’s bare toe.

She was a great cook and was often tasked with preparingsupper or lunch for her siblings. The menu consisted of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, Mushroom, or sometimes Vegetable soup. If they were lucky, she would also make tuna fish, baloney, or cheese sandwiches. After she was married, she progressed to casseroles and Jello salads with fruit or carrots and topped with cream cheese.

She met the love of her life, Doyle Eldon Newbold, on a blind date during the Summer of 1958. Doyle was from Downey, Idaho, a small town twenty miles North of Malad. He drove a 1950’s Ford, customized with fender “Skirts” and loud “Smitty” mufflers (It must have been the car that attracted her). After a short dating period, they were married in the Logan, Utah Temple on April 3, 1959.

She and Doyle bought an old home near Doyle’s parents in Downey and proceeded to completely renovate it. There, they raised their two children, Cheryl Ann, and Herald Glen. She worked several years as a Dental Assistant for Leo Seppi in Downey, ID. After Dr. Seppi retired, Tonyja lived with her sister in Roy, Utah part-time while she worked for the Internal Revenue Service for 12 years. After Doyle retired from working for the City of Downey, he joined her in Roy while they looked for a second home as he worked for Home Depot and Tonyja continued to work for the Ogden IRS Processing Center. Upon retirement for both Doyle and Tonyja, they returned to Downey and lived for a year prior to Doyle’s death on June 27, 2005.Tonyja then moved to Boise, ID to live with her daughter, Cheryl.

Her hobbies throughout her life were reading, golfing, water aerobics, tole painting and a love of animals and genealogy. She also was a member of the local Civil Emergency Services, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, and was active with the local Downey Study Club and National Women’s Foundation.

Tonyja was preceded in death by her parents Glen Parry and Ora Jones, her sisters Yvonne Joyce Snodgrass and Eleanor Prouty, her brothers Glendale Jones and George Brent Jones, and her husband Doyle Newbold.

She is survived by her son Herald Newbold of Downey, ID and daughter Cheryl Ann Newbold of Boise, ID, her brother, Gordon Burke Jones, and his wife, Paula of Clovis, CA and her sister, Tamara Lynn Waldron (husband Craig, decd.) of Roy, UT.

A viewing will be held at the Church of Latter-day Saints building located at 310 E. Center Downey, Idaho, Friday February 16th from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. with the graveside dedication immediately after at the Downey City Cemetery. A luncheon will be provided at the Church of Latter-Day Saints building after the dedication

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