Eddie Belle Leavell Newport

1919 - 2012

Eddie Belle Leavell Newport, a longtime resident of Fort Worth and much beloved as a wife, mother, teacher and world travel leader, passed away Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. Funeral: 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Broadway Baptist Church. Interment: Greenwood Memorial Park. Visitation: The family will receive friends 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home. Memorials: Please make contributions in her memory to the Newport Foundation, c/o Larry Williams, 12800 Hillcrest Rd., #A224, Dallas, Texas, 75230; or a charity of choice. Eddie Belle Leavell Newport was born June 12, 1919, in Memphis, Tenn. She was the daughter of Frank Hartwell Leavell and Martha Maria Boone, both of whom were deeply involved in Southern Baptist work. Her father was one of nine Leavell brothers from Oxford, Miss., most of whom were full-time Southern Baptists preachers, missionaries, teachers or denominational workers. Eddie Belle attended Ward-Belmont College, now Belmont University, in Nashville and graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. In 1941 she married John P. Newport, who served as pastor of four churches in Mississippi, Oklahoma and elsewhere before devoting himself to teaching, lecturing and writing books. In 1952 the couple moved to Fort Worth when John began his long career at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, retiring as vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost. He earlier taught at Baylor University and for three years in the 1970s at Rice University in Houston, where Eddie Belle expanded her wide circle of friends. Eddie Belle was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and, recently, great-grandmother. She was a member of Broadway Baptist Church and taught an adult Sunday school class there for many years. She also taught the independent Ray Reimers Bible Class and was an active member of The Woman's Club of Fort Worth. She earned a master's degree in history from Texas Christian University, writing her thesis on the planning of Washington, D.C., and taught for a while at the Edna Gladney Home, now the Gladney Center for Adoption, in Fort Worth and at River Oaks Baptist School in Houston. She loved to travel, and ultimately found great satisfaction leading tour and study groups around the world, at first in partnership with John and then on her own. Among her favorite destinations spanning five continents were the Holy Land, India and New Zealand. In 1979, she led one of the first U.S. groups to visit mainland China, where she returned numerous times. She was greatly appreciated and admired for her grace, her goodness, her determination, her desire to serve others, her sense of humor and her love of family. The family deeply appreciates the nurses and staff at Broadway Plaza in Fort Worth and the Holly Hall Retirement Community in Houston, who have helped care for her in recent years. In addition to her parents, Eddie Belle was preceded in death by her devoted husband; her beloved sister, Mary Martha Leavell; and her beloved brother, Frank Hartwell Leavell Jr. Survivors: Eddie Belle is survived by her three children, Martha Newport Shimkus and husband, Stan Shimkus, of New York City, N.Y., Frank Newport and wife, Kim, of Pennington, N.J., and John Paul Newport Jr. and his wife, Polly King, of Nyack, N.Y. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Nicholas Bailey, and Christopher, Calvin, Sarah, Emily and Anna Belle Newport; and a great-grandson, Emerson Bailey.