Two of his colleagues on the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight Committee were to persuade Ron Newsum to attend a meeting Tuesday evening in the Opera House at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village. There, he would be told of the honor.

Sadly, the plan was not carried out.

Newsum died Jan. 5 at age 87.

He will still be recognized posthumously as the Frontier Days marshal.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Jeana Becker, chairwoman of the Frontier Days Committee, talks about some of the events planned for the June 5-7 celebration.

Frontier Days organizers made the announcement Tuesday evening at the event in the Opera House.

“He left a legacy of service,” said Mel Schroeder, a member of the Honor Flight committee. “Ron definitely deserves this honor. I just wish he could be here to celebrate this with us.”

The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight program is a product of Newsum’s vision. He had heard about the national Honor Flight program with chapters across the country taking World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the war memorials. And he wanted to get his stepfather, the late Clem Hentges, to the nation’s capital. Hentges was a Navy veteran who had served on small PT boats in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during World War II.

Newsum got to work and brought some other area residents together to form a committee that would conduct the Honor Flights.

“I always remember the telephone call I got from Ron, telling me what he planned to do and asking me to be a member of the board,” Schroeder previously told The Messenger. “I was very honored to do so.”

“Ron dedicated virtually most of his time to making each flight successful,” he added.

Starting in 2010, there were 27 flights that took about 3,500 veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the nation’s war memorials. Those veterans came from 240 communities in 61 Iowa counties.

“Just think of all the veterans he’s touched,” Schroeder told the gathering Tuesday evening.

Newsum, Schroeder and the other members of the original Honor Flight committee retired after the May 2025 trip. A new committee is planning a flight for May 26.

The Honor Flight was not the only patriotic and community minded venture Newsum started. He also created Old Glory on the River, which displays a large American flag on an old bridge pier in the Des Moines River.

Frontier Days organizers had selected Newsum to be the marshal last summer. The decision was not announced at that time because marshals have traditionally been announced a few months before Frontier Days.

During the June 6 Frontier Days parade, Newsum will be represented by a riderless horse with empty boots in the stirrups. That is an old gesture to honor a fallen leader that was most famously used during the 1963 funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

Newsum is apparently the first person to be named Frontier Days marshal posthumously.