Rita H. Newton

Rita H. Newton, 89, of Miami passed away February 18, 2017 at Willow Haven, ALF after spending time with her son, daughter and two grandchildren. She has resided in South Florida along with her daughter and grandchildren since 2009, having moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois on July 11, 1927.

Rita was a retired teacher with the Chicago Public Schools. She graduated from Englewood High School in 1944 and Chicago Teachers College in 1948. Rita had a brilliant, inquisitive mind and a strong constitution. She traveled to Japan with her husband, Clyde W. Phillips, M.D., when he was stationed in Japan during the Korean War as an Air Force medical officer. Into her sixties, she camped out in Montana with her daughter on the Crow Reservation during an inter tribal spiritual gathering and started to learn the Cherokee language from Owen Scott in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Bo Taylor in Cherokee, North Carolina. In her later years, she also resided with her daughter in Blackfoot, Idaho.

She is survived by her son, Clyde W. Phillips, Jr; daughter, Valerie J. Phillips; granddaughter, Lushia (Luxha) A. Phillips; grandson, Jose A. Phillips; nephew, John Palmer; nieces, Leslie Adkins and Portia Palmer; grandniece, Lenore Adkins; and grandnephew, Philip Adkins. She was preceded in death by her parents, Wade Harrison Newton and Beatrice Magdalen Clements; and her sister, Theresa Palmer.

A family service will be held on Wednesday, February 22nd at Fred Hunters Hollywood Memorial Funeral Home, 6301 Taft Street Hollywood, Entombment will follow at Hollywood Memorial Gardens Mausoleum North.