Neoma Lee (Alexander) Foreman

Neoma Lee (Alexander) Foreman, was born on a rainy night, June 9, 1939, to Chester and Beulah (Hart) Alexander, and left this earth to enter her heavenly home while the rain came down again in the early hours of November 18, 2024, at 85 years old after a valiant second battle with cancer.

 

The youngest of 3 girls, and the baby by 12 and 9 years, Neoma loved being the baby sister. Her tales of tough times growing up with her family on the farm were always circled back with fond memories of working in the garden, making clothes and simply being together. A close family is what inspired her to create one of her own, even when the numbers really began to expand!

 

After graduating from Walker High School’s Class of 1957, Neoma would marry Charles Eugene Foreman on June 15 of the same year. Together they would welcome Charles Eugene Jr, (Chuck), Chester Lee, and Christine Elizabeth within just over a 3-year timespan. As the children grew, so did the garden, the farm, and the amount of stories that Neoma would use to put her gift of writing down memories to work. She always said that people sometimes couldn’t believe that she hadn’t added any extra details for entertainment, but life on the farm always provided that for her.

 

Neoma was a lifelong resident of Vernon County and used her love of history, writing, and community to publish five history books along with about 1,000 children's stories and articles. Her most recent publication, a fiction novel, A Collision With Destiny, was published shortly before her 80th birthday and was one of her most dear accomplishments.

 

Neoma was active in a variety of community groups including as a Sunday School teacher, GA Leader, VBS organizer, Township Board member, Walker Community Betterment Association, Christian Writer’s Fellowship, DAR, Gideon’s Auxiliary, 4-H, Grange, Rural Mail Carriers’ Association and a host of local historical and genealogical societies.

 

Neoma, and her husband Charles, were members of The First Baptist Church of Walker and served there for over 50 years before it disbanded in 2005. They then joined The First Baptist Church of Schell City as they loved serving in local, small-town churches, but as they got older and the roads got slicker, they felt it would be safer to not travel quite as far from home, so they joined the First Baptist Church of Nevada. Neoma loved using her talents to serve the Lord and could do so with ease wherever God placed her.

 

To the community, Neoma will always be a historian, writer, and woman of high character with an unshakable faith. Even when things got bad, her perspective and outlook never wavered. If you ever look back through her writing you will always find a plot that was downright frustrating, but she would always find a way to end it with a positive outlook and a reminder that God’s got this.

 

To those who were blessed to call her family, Neoma is an outstanding and unmatched wife, mom, grandma, great-grandma (Grammy), aunt, cousin, and beloved friend. She always had an open seat at the kitchen table and a cookie jar full of treats for anyone who came through her door.

 

She was the keeper of the mistletoe, the one who was always ready to sing “Silent Night” or “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” when things began to get tense, and while she loved and supported her kids and grandkids, she also taught them that if it’s worth having, it’s worth working for.

 

Neoma’s curiosity was one of the best traits about her. She saw the world as full of questions and a never-ending opportunity to learn about God’s creation and was determined to find the answers and write an article about it. If you asked her a question she would typically answer with what letter you could begin to look at in the Encyclopedia for the answer.

 

Neoma was preceded in death by both her parents and her sisters Violet and Annie Lou. Also gone before her were sisters-in-law Dora Jane Haynes and Juanita Foreman, brothers-in-law Dale Overton, Fred Haynes, Russell Lee Foreman, and Joe Lee Beaty, and a great-nephew Joshua Clyde Haynes.

 

Those left here to mourn her absence, yet rejoice in her dancing with the angels include her husband of just over 67 years, Charles Eugene Foreman, Sr. Her children Charles Eugene Foreman, Jr (Vicki); Chester Lee Foreman (Marla); and Christine Elizabeth Graham. Grandchildren; David Foreman (Betsy); Charity Laning (Bob); Wendy Conley (Brandon); Joseph Graham (Angie); Katie Budd (Anthony); Wesley Foreman (Bridget); Timothy Foreman (Alexandra); Corey Graham, Regan Kluhsman (Ben), Sarah Ireland, and Matthew Holmes (Jessica). There are 22 great-grandchildren, with #23 on the way that will all miss their Grammy and everything that she was to them. She also leaves behind her beloved niece Phyllis Garrison (Bob), sister-in-law Alice Beaty, brother-in-law Frank Haynes (Fern), and several nieces, nephews, and a host of amazing friends, and caregivers, many who supported her through the ups and downs of her cancer battle.

 

Funeral services will be held at 2 pm on Friday, November 22nd at the First Baptist Church in Nevada, MO with Visitation on Thursday the 21st from 5-7 pm at Ferry Funeral Home. Interment will follow in Green Lawn Cemetery in Schell City.

 

When asked a couple of months ago regarding funeral services, Neoma said that she worked her entire life trying to get people to church and to know Jesus and that she would use her celebration of the life that Jesus gave her for one more opportunity to get people into the church. Please join us as we celebrate the gifts that the Lord gave her to share with us.

 

You may view obituary and send condolences online at www.ferryfuneralhome.com