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iReporters share memories of Paul Newman

  • Story Highlights
  • Newman recalled as one of the guys by people who met him at camps, race tracks
  • Movie fans who had crushes on Newman still cherish chance meetings with him
  • "He's a national treasure," says film director
  • Paul Newman died Friday, at 83, after battling cancer
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(CNN) -- Sheila Oppenheimer was only a day away from giving birth, and she was worried. "I was on the fetal monitor, and I was very scared." She looked out a window and saw a blue-eyed man, Paul Newman, walking by. Then, she knew everything would be all right.

Alex Hart in a race car driven by Paul Newman. He said the ride was one of the thrills of his life.

Paul Newman meets Sheila Oppenheimer's daughter, for whom he was a "lucky charm," Oppenheimer wrote.

A few months later, the new Fairfield, Connecticut, mom got to tell her story to Newman himself. He grasped her elbow and said, "That's great, that's great!" as the baby grabbed his glasses, Oppenheimer recalled, sending a photo capturing the moment to iReport.com.

Other readers remember Newman's generosity and kindness to strangers and in his charity work, his racing speed, his looks and, of course, his movies in tributes they sent to iReport after Newman's death on Friday from cancer at 83.

Jeffrey Dotts met Newman on occasion at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut, one of the camps Newman helped to found for sick children. Dotts remembers Newman as "one of us," doing what he could to help the kids.

"The story of Paul Newman isn't as much about his celebrity or even his philanthropy. It's about his 'shameless exploitation' of the good in people and his capacity to give the money and then step out of the way to let that good happen," Dotts told iReport.

"Paul Newman's legacy might be movies and an unyielding commitment to his craft and art. But I know that there are thousands who would tell you that of all things he did in this world, building a space for kids to be kids was the singular most impactful and changing action he took."

Like so many, Jean Sylvia of Delray Beach, Florida, fell in love with Newman's screen persona and used that as the bar for what men should be like.

"When I got a little older I met him at a political function, and it was hard to control myself. I was no longer a giddy teenager; I was a grandmother who felt like 16 again. He was just a nice warm man who looked at me with those eyes, took my hand and spoke to me. I don't remember what he said because at that moment I was 16 and in awe."

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Joellyn Mumcian taped a photo of Newman in her closet of her childhood home in Marietta, Georgia, when she was about 12 and that photo stayed there, even after she'd left. Soon after her crush began, her mom happened to tell her that Joanne Woodward went to Marietta High School and that the actress was married to Paul Newman.

"It was a devastating blow. How could it be possible that someone ELSE from my little town have actually married this man that I idolized?" Mumcian wrote.

A decade or so later, Mumcian ran into Newman in a supermarket after a day a the beach in Malibu, California, with her daughter.

"I heard my little girl say loudly 'Hi, man!' and I looked up to my astonishment to see Mr. Newman standing there, blue eyes more piercing than I could have ever imagined, in his racing jumpsuit with his name embroidered on it, and a case of beer under his arm," she told iReport.

"He said to my daughter, 'Hi, yourself! Boy, you're a real cutie.' Then [he] turned to me and said, 'Hi, mom,' before turning away, leaving me speechless, and in awe."

Barbara Rademacher of Bentonville, Arkansas, may not have met Newman, but to her, the news of his death was still "heartbreaking."

"My favorite movie by Paul Newman is the movie 'Exodus.' I think it may be the best movie ever made," she said in a video tribute.

"Paul Newman brought to life the struggle of the Jewish people to set up their own state. Of course, now we know that there are more sides to that argument than we had believed before. Nonetheless, it is a wonderful, wonderful movie."

Director Brad Mays told iReporter Chris Morrow at the San Diego Film Festival that he had met Newman in the mid-'80s in New York when the actor and Woodward were looking for a place to put on a theater workshop.

"They came to the space I was working at at the time. And they sat down, they brought a lot of popcorn, they were incredibly nice people. Paul Newman gave his time freely to the various theater artists who were there. He was funny and my god, he was a hell of a good-looking guy!" Mays said.

"I think he's a national treasure, and I'm very sad that he's gone. He's one of the good ones; he's one of the great ones."

Newman's generosity was also on view at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, when he was offering rides in his car a decade or so ago. Alex Hart was one of those who took up the offer, having Newman drive him round at speeds of up to 120 mph.

"As we came to an end of our adventure of speed, I turned to him asked, 'Can I say that that was bitchin'?' In which he turned to me and passionately answered, 'That was bitchin'!'

"Thank you, Mr. Paul Newman for one of the best rushes of my life!" Hart wrote.

Lyn St. James of Phoenix, Arizona, also admired Newman on the track, first from afar and then closer up as she often raced against him in the 1980s. "It always amazed me that he was just 'one of us' while at the track," she remembered.

Once, she said, she was heading to her car on the grid when Newman was driving by on a scooter, and he stopped to offer her a ride. Newman gave St. James even more help later on, when he donated $10,000 to Project Podium, an initiative by the Women in the Winner's Circle Foundation to encourage young women race-car drivers, she said.

Cheryl McCarthy of Westport, Connecticut, was another of the state's residents who would occasionally see Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, out and about. And even on a shopping trip, she recalled how the actor would take time out to make others feel special.

She was working at a Laura Ashley store in the early 1980s when Newman and Woodward entered.

"It was late in the day and since I was in management, I was doing clerical work in the backroom. On the way out, Mr. Newman popped his head in the office door, looked at me and said, 'Don't they let you out for air?' and I chuckled and replied that they didn't," McCarthy wrote.

"When I think of Paul Newman I think of his body of work (how can the bicycle scenes in 'Butch Cassidy' not make you smile?), his philanthropic deeds and his blue eyes. But mostly I think of him as a lovely man, a neighbor and I will miss seeing him around town. Godspeed Mr. Newman."

All About Paul Newman

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