Pacific Posts: June Ashmore

Newlin visited China in 1989 a few weeks after the protests and deadly suppression at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. She said that the hotels were nearly empty, apart from her tour group and some Japanese businessmen, as were all the tourist sites. Her tour group felt brave enough to go since the organizer of the tour was Newlin's brother Ludlow, and several family members joined them: Ludlow’s wife Clarisse, Newlin and Ludlow’s sister Sheryl and her husband Emmett, as well as their sister-in-law June.

There were a lot of photos from that trip, but I cannot really identify where each one was taken. I know they flew in and out of Shanghai. They took the train sometimes, and of course had buses for their local tours, but they were in boats as well — around Shanghai, I think, and certainly on the River Li. They also visited Beijing (the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square, where they had the rare opportunity to see Mao’s tomb) and one of Newlin’s favorites, Xi'an, for its terracotta soldiers. Ludlow arranged to visit a dental practice (June’s husband/their brother Enwood was a dentist still practicing in Tallahassee at that time) and to attend a Christian church service.