FAYETTEVILLE — February 11, 1948, John L Newman,

was born in Rohwer, Ark., to John Newman and Margaret Henderson Newman.

In 1954, his family moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he excelled at art in the Kansas City Kansas Public School District. He graduated from Wyandotte High School in 1966 and went on to receive a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, where he obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration before being drafted in 1970. After serving as a military policeman in the United States Army, he worked for Hallmark Cards for three years before deciding to return for a second degree, a Bachelor of Arts Education from the University of Kansas, in 1975. This same year, he met Joanna Leapheart who he would go on to marry on October 15, 1977. To this union two children were born, John Michael Newman in 1978 and Jamila Jani Lois Newman in 1979.

John would go on to teach junior high and high school for the Kansas City Kansas Public School District from 1975 to 1980 before returning to the University of Kansas where he finished a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982. In 1987, he and his family left Kansas City for Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he taught in a local high school and served as an adjunct professor at Wright State University. In 1990, John acquired a full-time teaching position at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville where he remained until he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2013. John was the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants, and commissions including the National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation Scholarship, Visual Arts Fellowship, Kansas Arts Commission, Assistant in Collaboration Lithography, Ohio Arts Commission, Ohio Arts Council Summer Fellowship for Teachers of Arts, and the University of Arkansas African American Faculty Development Grant, the Silas B Hunt Award, and the Black Action Collective Dr. Margaret Sirman Clark Arts Award. He presented his artwork in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States, in Jamaica, and Macedonia. In 2010, John was named recipient of the Distinguished Cultural Award by the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education for his body of work documenting the Black American Experience. One of the most important teachings he imparted was that the artist must look deep inside to create authentic work that resonates with individuals and communities. As a child, John and his family attended St. Peters CME Church in Kansas City, Kansas, where he was later baptized. Upon moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Newman family joined the Historic St. James Missionary Baptist Church where he was ordained and served as deacon.

He was preceded in death by his father, John, and mother, Margaret, and his maternal aunts, Bessie and Mildred Henderson, his nephews, Jeffrey Sheely and Vaughn Newman Jr, his paternal grandparents, Eric and Marceline Newman, his maternal grandparents, Percy Henderson and Sophia Bozman, and his great-grandmother, Charity Gordon.

John is survived by his wife of forty-four years, Joanna L Newman, his children, John and Jamila, and his six siblings, Herman Joe (Patricia) Newman, Diane Dotson, Vaughn Newman, Michelle ( Patrick) Buckner, Virlee Newman, and Terry Newman. He also leaves behind, his aunt, Ora Lee Henderson, his brothers-in-law, Morris (Lucille) Leapheart, Dr. Willie Hardin, Herschel (Carolyn) Leapheart, Ronald (Tabitha) Leapheart, and Donald (Lissa) Leapheart, and sistersin-law, Willie Ethel (Jerry) McNeal, Tillie O’Neal-Kyles, Mary Lois Hardin, and Rosalind Leapheart as well as a host of cousins, nieces, nephews, and dear friends.

The family will receive friends from 2-4 p.m., Sunday, March 27, 2022, at Beard’s Funeral Chapel. Funeral services will be 11 a.m., Monday, March 28, 2022, at St. James Missionary Baptist Church. Interment will follow in the Fayetteville National Cemetery. Condolences at: www.beardsfuneralchapel.com