Doris Thomas Newton

Doris worked tirelessly with many public service organizations. In 1975, she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Delta Beta Omega Chapter, an organization of professional African-American women, where she held the offices of: vice-president, treasurer, assistant secretary and archivist. Doris also served on the Board of the Phoenix Urban League and was past President of the Phoenix Urban League Guild. She often conducted literacy, financial literacy and other programs for educationally disadvantaged children and adults. Doris spearheaded “Girls Scouts Behind Bars”, an outreach program for incarcerated women. She incorporated her storytelling skills by developing a series of inspirational stories about “Bad Girls of the Bible”. A political activist, Doris worked on many voter registration drives and spent several years as a Deputy Voter Registrar. Doris saw much of the world. She lived in Germany for several years and traveled through much of Europe. She also traveled to Mexico, the Caribbean, the Philippines, Japan and China. Her various activities took her to most of the major cities in the United States but she also explored her adopted home state of Arizona including the Grand Canyon, The London Bridge, Sedona and Historic Tucson. Doris passed away following a valiant struggle with diabetes and heart disease. A child of segregation, she was blessed to see an African-American in the White House. Doris was preceded in death by her parents Charles W. Thomas Sr. and Edna Mason Thomas, Her sister Thelma Thomas Bell, her brothers Charles Thomas Jr. and John Thomas, her mother-in-law Aola Clifton, her sisters-in-law Artalma Taylor and Edna Thomas and her husbands George Williams and Arnette Newton. Doris is survived by her children Michael Williams, Charles and Kathleen Newton, her daughter-in-law Kristine Williams, her nephews Reginald Thomas and Mark Arnold, her grandchildren Corrine and Thomas Williams, Anastasia Newton and Victoria and Vanessa Walters and her childhood friend Emma Hall