Stanley F. Newton

Stanley Fred Newton, 85 years old, passed away September 28, 2015 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was born in Olustee, Oklahoma on September 17, 1930. Dressed in a bow tie and black suit coat at the tender age of seven years old, he was first put to work bussing tables at the family restaurant. Thus began the life of a man truly unafraid of hard work. He graduated from Victory High School, a small rural school west of Altus, Oklahoma, in 1948, and went on to junior college in Lawton, Oklahoma, and, thereafter Eastern New Mexico University, in Portales, New Mexico. It was there he met the love of his life, Eula Fay Duncan, from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. They met in November, 1952, were married May 17, 1953, and in 2015 celebrated their sixty-second wedding anniversary. Within weeks of marrying, Stanley was drafted into the United States Army and sent to basic training in Fort Smith, Arkasas. He was stationed in Augsburg, Germany for 18 months. Afterwards he returned home and attended Oklahoma State University where he was awarded his Masters of Arts in political science. He and Eula moved to Elida, New Mexico in 1956, where he taught history and coached basketball and baseball at the Elida High School and served as part-time preacher at the Elida Church of Christ. In 1959 the family moved from Elida to Roswell, New Mexico where he worked as a vice-principal in the Roswell school district. During that time he continued to drive back and forth to Elida to preach every Sunday and teach Bible class on Wednesday evenings. He also taught classes at Roswell’s community college. After the birth of their three children, Stanley and Eula moved to Estancia, New Mexico where Stanley served as Estancia Municipal School Superintendent for 22 years. He was also a little league baseball coach, an elder in the Estancia Church of Christ, and a Bible School teacher extraordinaire. When he retired from the school system, he moved to Logan, New Mexico on the banks of Ute Lake, where he preached for the Logan Church of Christ, taught many of the local children in an after school program he called the “FBI” (Faithful Bible Investigators), and met his fishing buddy every Monday morning like clockwork to work those lake bass. In 2004, Stanley and Eula moved to Elephant Butte and then moved to Las Cruces in 2012. They faithfully attended both the Truth or Consequences and the Las Cruces Church of Christ where he continued to the end of his life teaching Bible school classes every Sunday. Were he inclined to do so, he could truly say, as did Paul the apostle, “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” He is survived by his wife Eula Newton of Las Cruces, three children, Stanna Porter, and her husband, Alan Porter, of Las Cruces, New Mexico; his son, Barry Newton, and his wife, Renee Newton, of Las Cruces; and his son, Joel Newton, and his wife, Suzie Newton, also of Las Cruces. He is also survived by his sister, Wilena Barton, of Chouteau, Oklahoma and her husband, Shearl Barton; his sister Twila Marler,and her husband Leonard, of Pocatello, Idaho; his brother, Eddie Kaufman, and his wife Jan, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and a host of grandchildren and great grandchildren. Funeral services will be at the Las Cruces Church of Christ, 2025 N Valley Drive, Las Cruces, New Mexico at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 2, 2015. A memorial service will also be held at Chavez Funeral Home, 830 N. 5th St, Fort Sumner, New Mexico on Saturday, October 3, 2015 beginning at 10:00 a.m., with interment to follow in the Fort Sumner Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family would prefer donations made in Stanley's memory to the New Mexico Christian Children's Home, 1356 NM 236, Portales, NM 88130 or online at nmcch.org Local arrangements are under the direction of Chavez Funeral Home, 830 N. Fifth Street, Fort Sumner, NM. (575) 355-2311.