Linda King Newell

1941 - 2023

Linda King Newell

1941 ~ 2023

Linda King Newell (82) died February 12, 2023. She was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, a prized aunt and treasured friend. Linda and her husband L. Jackson Newell enjoyed a truly remarkable 60-year personal and professional partnership.

Born January 16, 1941, to Pearl Davies and Foisy Earl King, Linda was the second of five children. After graduating from Millard High School, she attended the College of Southern Utah and completed her BA degree in Art and Education at Utah State University.

A college trip to New York City and Washington, DC in 1962 opened a world of possibilities to her. The group toured the White House where she had the honor of meeting President John F. Kennedy. The trip ignited a desire in Linda to make an impact on the world-and she did. That same year she met her future husband Jack when they both worked at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Linda was a noted historian, writer, editor, and independent scholar. Her seminal work, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith was co-authored with Valeen Tippetts Avery. This meticulously-researched biography of the first wife of Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, provided groundbreaking insight into the beginnings of the church and the practice of polygamy from a woman's perspective. Mormon Enigma won three book awards and in 2016, the Wall Street Journal listed it among the five best books on Mormon history and culture.

Linda authored or co-authored five books and numerous essays and scholarly articles. With her husband Jack, she co-edited Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought from 1982-1987. She was a series editor for the University of Utah Press, Development Director for the Utah Humanities Council, and Director of Special Projects at Deep Springs College.

For forty years, Linda worked passionately to realize her vision of establishing an artist's and writer's retreat near Zion National Park. In honor of her decades of work to make the retreat center come to life, one of the residency cabins is named the "Linda King Newell House of Grand Dreams."

She was a founding member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, and a proud member and President of the Utah PEO Chapter A.

Linda was also a prize-winning artist who worked in watercolors and oils. She lovingly painted portraits of the people and places she cherished the most-her grandchildren and the landscapes of Georgian Bay, Deep Springs Valley, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. She created beauty in abundance and could turn any space or canvas into a beautiful work of art.

Nowhere did her kindness, generosity of spirit, gifts for creating beauty and for teaching others express themselves more fully than the decade she and Jack spent at Deep Springs College where she literally made the desert bloom.

She was tenacious and a champion of justice and truth who overcame adversity with dignity and grace.

Linda is survived by her husband, Jack, their four children, Chris, Jennifer, Eric, and Heather, twelve grandchildren, and her sister Charlene King Kotoku.

Donations in honor of Linda Newell may be made to the Zion Canyon Mesa; PO Box 145, Springdale, Utah 84767 http://zioncanyonmesa.org/donate

A Celebration of Life will be held will be held Thursday, February 16 from 6-8pm at the Garden Park Ward (1150 E. Yale Ave. Salt Lake City, UT.) Funeral services will be Friday, February 17 at 10am at the Garden Park Ward.

For Linda's full obituary, please visit Larkinmortuary.com