Lucious Newsom, 'Lord's beggar' for Indianapolis' poor, dies
By Vic Ryckaert
A man known as "the Lord's beggar for the poor" for his charity work in Indianapolis died Monday at St. Francis Hospital.
Lucious Newsom, a Catholic activist who used his knack for begging to build Anna's House, 303 N. Elder Ave., died at about 8:20 p.m. at the hospital's Beech Grove campus after a battle with cancer. Some sources put his age at 92.
Best quote:
"I've got to go up there and teach them Yankees how to love."
the passion:
Newsom ran a makeshift food bank in vacant lots and on street corners, handing out food and household items he solicited from area businesses.
the get up:
Newsom, who usually wore bib overalls, patrolled the city’s poorest neighborhoods with a mobile food pantry. Nesome also helped find shelter for the homeless, tutoring for children, emergency assistance when the lights or heat could be turned off.
not to mention a young stud in the GOP by the name of Mike Pence for one:
His volunteer corps ranged from school children to Gov. Mitch Daniels, who would visit Newsom's pantry some Saturdays to help serve meals or take a bag of groceries to a neighborhood home.
from Pence's site:
“I will always remember how, before the food pantry would open to needy families, Lucious would explain to the volunteers who had gathered inside, ‘you are about to have the privilege of serving Christ a meal because he said, “whatsoever you do for the least of these, that you do for me.’’’
5 comments:
Thanks for sharing this story about such an inspirational man.
I hope he got good press when he was alive, too!
it was equal.
Thanks for this. We always read about the wealthy giving money and I do not want to demean what they do, it's important. We don't hear enough about people like this though and they are everywhere. AS much as we appreciate the wealthy paying for builidings, there is something special about soemone who does not appear to have much give the one thing they have, themselves.
There are plenty of people who say they will help others. There are few that spend their lives doing so.
there are too few of these "angels" about these days.
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