Clara Eva Newby

Clara Eva (Foster) Newby, prolific artist and beloved family matriarch, passed away on January 15, 2025, two months shy of her 100th birthday. In her long and beautiful life, she pursued the things she loved with inspiring dedication. Instead of one path, she chose many. Family, art, volunteering, music, teaching, travel, gardening, decorating, sewing, cooking, entertaining — her life was a masterpiece of her own making.

Clara was born on March 31, 1925, in Greenville, TX to Eula (Watkins) Foster, a seamstress, and Jewell “Shorty” Foster, an auto mechanic. Greenville’s population was less than 13,000 at the time, and Clara had memories of produce being delivered door to door by mule cart. However, Clara recalls being known as the “city girl” to her rural relatives, many of whom were sharecroppers.

Growing up, Clara lived just a few houses from an artist and Eula decided she should take art lessons. Since bartering was popular in the days of the depression, Eula sewed for the artist in exchange for lessons and Clara’s lifelong passion for art was born.

When Clara was twelve years old, Shorty was hired by Ford Motor Company to move to Dallas and open a mechanic shop. The family, including brother J. and sister Sue, settled in Oak Cliff and became members of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. Clara recalled this time fondly, telling of daylong family reunions at the park and churning peppermint ice cream that—for lack of a freezer—had to be eaten all in one day. (Ice cream becoming another one of her lifelong passions.)

In 7th grade, she met William E. Newby, Jr. (Bill) at church and they struck up a friendship that became a courtship by the time they both entered Adamson High School, where William played saxophone and Clara was on the drill team. Though a family of strict Southern Baptists, Eula did allow Clara to attend one dance her senior year with Bill, as long as she remembered that “Jesus would be on her shoulder the whole time.”

After graduation, Bill enlisted in the army and was sent to Pennsylvania for training at Drexel Institute. Before leaving, he sold his saxophone to buy a ring and he and Clara became engaged. While he was away, she worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and began commuting downtown by trolley. During this time, the couple exchanged gifts through the mail. Bill sent her the album Oklahoma!, featuring music from the musical that had just opened on Broadway, and in return, Clara packed up chocolate bars, Coca Cola, and his other favorites. On a lunch break, she happened upon a gift shop and bought him a small pocket Bible with a silver-plated cover as well, which she added to the package at the last minute.

During World War II, Bill was deployed to the European theater for nine months, earning a battlefield commission and the Silver Star for gallantry in action, when on April 14, 1945 he sustained what should have been a fatal shot to the heart. However, the silver Bible Clara sent him was in his breast pocket, and deflected the bullet to his arm. After the amputation of his left arm and a long convalescence, they were married on October 6, 1945 in Dallas.

After Bill’s graduation from SMU and starting their family with a son, Robert (Bob), the Newbys moved to Corpus Christi, TX. A few years later, she gave birth to another son, Michael, who lived only a few hours. After a difficult and uncertain motherhood journey, daughter, Debra was born in 1954.

While her husband worked as a CPA, Clara became deeply involved in First Baptist Church Corpus Christi; teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, and playing handbells. She was also a member of the Philharmonic Music Club and CPA Wives Club, yet still found time to attend Bob’s little league games and sew Debra’s dance costumes.

Once both children were off to school, Clara found herself with enough time to revisit her love of art. She began traveling to Rockport, TX to take classes with Simon Michael, a Paris-trained artist who is credited with establishing a vibrant art community there. Clara deeply connected with his emphasis on the importance of painting experiences rather than mere pictures.

As air travel became more accessible in the 1970s, she and Bill began traveling abroad and her creativity was ignited by these new and foreign settings. She painted her way through Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii to create works with vivid titles such as Out of a Window of Puerto Vallarta, Memories of Spain, and British Columbia Market. Along the way, Clara became enamored with watercolors. While she continued her acrylics study with Simon Michael, she also began attending workshops with watercolorists such as Ken Hosmer and Clay McGaughy both in Kerrville, TX and Cloudcroft, NM.

In 1977, a new job for Bill took their family to Victoria, TX. Again, she immersed herself in the community, becoming a member of the Victoria Symphony Guild, the Metropolitan League of Visual Art, Citizens Medical Center Auxiliary (where she ran the gift shop for several years), and the Morning Study Club. In October 1985, Clara was honored as an Unsung Hero in her community by the Victoria Advocate.

Clara and Bill’s home in Victoria was a mecca of love and fun for their grandchildren, with summer visits that might last as long as two weeks! Memories include craft projects and candy making, shopping sprees at the mall, helping Clara volunteer at the hospital gift shop, trips to the Victoria Zoo, sewing homecoming dresses, and always a freezer full of ice cream.

Not long after Bill retired, they decided to move to Austin to be closer to their grandchildren. They joined First Baptist Church Austin and began volunteering at the historic Old Bakery in downtown Austin as well as the gift shop of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

When her beloved Bill passed away in 2001, Clara received great encouragement from her church community. With dear friends Jerry Keesee, Gloria McCullough, Mary Guemple, and Bertha Harris she started First Baptist’s Wednesday Night Supper Ministry, created beautiful liturgical hangings for the church sanctuary, arranged flowers for the sanctuary flower ministry, and hosted countless church festivities.

Clara also took great solace in her art, continuing to take classes and experiment with collage, sculpting, and modern techniques like alcohol ink. In 2004, Clara’s watercolor “Beguiling Bluebells” was selected as the winner of the annual Wildflower Days contest and she was named the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Artist of the Year.

In an art career spanning over sixty years, Clara produced a vast amount of artwork in a wide range of mediums. Her art has been featured in countless shows, mentioned in dozens of articles, and sold to collectors as far away as Japan. She shared her talents throughout her life, teaching art classes to both adults and children, often giving freely of her time. One of her greatest joys was sharing art with her ten great grandchildren. She always kept paints, markers, paper and anything needed to create art in her kitchen so it would be ready any time they came over. Her patience and encouragement were gifts she gave to each little artist, insisting there was no such thing as “messing up” or “doing it wrong.” Inspired by her artist mother, Debra opened Link & Pin Art Gallery and in 2019 hosted an art show featuring the work of Clara’s great grandchildren. It was a beautiful celebration of her rich, creative legacy.

Clara continued to paint until she could no longer hold a brush.

She was preceded in death by her parents Jewell and Eula Foster, brother J. Foster, son Michael, Mary Gordon Spence, and the love of her life, Bill.

She is survived by her sister, Sue Mansfield, children Bob and his wife Tracy, Debra and her husband Robert, grandchildren Noelle (Matt), Milam (Tory), Becca, Claire (Brian), and Jarratt (Hannah), as well as great grandchildren William, Caroline, Henry, Griffin, Hazel, Rankin, Bennett, Wallis, Henry Foster, and James.

The family would like to thank Estela Fernandez, Alfonso Garcia, Murphy McBride, Argie Bonilla, and Beth Simmons who cared for Clara toward the end of her life and helped her stay in her own home as long as possible.

A Celebration of Life will be held at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center on February 22, 2025 at 1pm. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the flower ministry of First Baptist Church, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, or the Rockport Center for the Arts. A burial at Arlington National Cemetery alongside Bill will happen at a later date.