Jeannine Hale Phillips Newman's Obituary
Norma Jeannine Hale Phillips Newman, age 84, passed away in Fayetteville, AR, on October 30, 2014. She was born in Neosho, MO, on November 2, 1929 to Elva Chandler and Lura Ellen (Bell) Hale.
Jeannine and her parents moved to Berryville, AR, in 1934 where her father established a produce, dry goods, and leather goods business. She graduated from Berryville High School where she fondly remembered being a majorette and working in the local drug store, Berryville Drug. Jeannine worked in different professions throughout her life, but she spoke with most pride in owning and operating one of the first private employment agencies (Northwest Arkansas Employment Agency) in Fayetteville, AR, and for serving as the “first lady” of the Arkansas National Guard when her husband, Maj. General Thomas Martin Phillips, served as the state’s Adjutant General.
Jeannine was an active member of the First Christian Church in both Fayetteville and Berryville. She was always very involved in her children’s schools, serving as homeroom mother almost every year, as an officer in their PTA’s, as a dedicated Brownie and Girl Scout leader as well as a Den Mother for her son’s Boy Scout troop. She even called upon her past majorette experience, sewing many of her daughter’s elaborate majorette costumes. In the remaining free time she had, she stayed busy in various volunteer activities including the Democratic Party of Washington and Carroll counties, Washington General Hospital (now WRMC in Fayetteville), the Women’s Club of the Fayetteville Country Club, and the Berryville Chamber of Commerce.
Jeannine lived in several places during her lifetime, starting with her birth in Neosho, then the move to Berryville. Eventually she married Tommy Phillips on March 4, 1953 and, following the birth of their daughter in 1954, they moved to Fort Sill, OK. After a little over a year in Fort Sill, the family moved to Fayetteville, with some years split with living at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock for General Phillips’ position. Following the death of her husband in 1973, she remained in Fayetteville, working at McIlroy Bank, until she married on May 4, 1985 a former high school beau, Col. (Ret.) Larry Kent Newman, and they moved back to Berryville, where Larry was residing. They lived in Berryville until Larry’s death in January 2014, whereupon she returned to Fayetteville to be near her daughter and her family.
She was predeceased by husbands Maj. General Thomas Martin Phillips and Col. (Ret.) Larry Kent Newman, her parents, and her son, Mark Hale Phillips.
She is survived by her daughter, Jaquita Phillips Ball and husband Ramsay of Fayetteville; grandchildren Sarah Jane Ball of Bentonville, AR, Jennifer Annette (Phillips) Parker and husband Yancy of Elkins, AR, and Jonathan Martin Phillips and wife Carleigh of Fayetteville; great-grandchildren Grady and Maci Parker of Elkins; sister Kylene Hale Hayes of Benbrook, TX; niece and nephew Donna Hayes and Scott Hayes and their families in Texas; sister-in-law Shirley Porter and her husband Gene (Berryville); and stepsons Jim Phillips (Stover, MO), Tommy Phillips, Jr. (Green Forest, AR), General Larry Clay Newman and Col. (Ret.) Clyde “Brud” Newman, both of Missouri, and their families.
In lieu of flowers, please send memorials to Good Shepherd Humane Society (Eureka Springs, AR), Turpentine Creek Animal Refuge (Eureka Springs, AR), or the First Christian Churches of Berryville and Fayetteville.
Graveside services will be held 1:00 PM, Monday November 3rd at Fairview Memorial Gardens in Fayetteville.
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