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When Mom was the chief of police
Children of Springfields first female police chief fondly recall mother, her influence
desk photo
Springfield’s first female police chief, Frances Newton, prepares to start work behind her desk. Newton passed away in October. - photo by Photo courtesy of the Newton family
Age has decayed the adhesive pages on a brown, leather scrapbook, and old photos slide as the pages turn, newspaper clippings, frail, but preserved from decades ago, a few unruly corners still flipped.
 
The articles capture a time of visceral trust in neighbors and each other, before terrorism, meth or Amber alerts, but after the 1970s and Vietnam, as society continued to adjust to social revolutions that were so long immersed in hostility.
 
In 1980, the Springfield Police Department hired its first female officer, and two months later made her chief. 
 
For the complete story, see Tuesday's edition of the Effingham Herald, our special county-wide edition.