Anne Royall Newman papers

Anne Royall Newman was born in Florence, South Carolina on December 10, 1925 to Sam Royall and Elizabeth Willcox Royall. She graduated from McClenaghan High School in Florence, in 1939 and matriculated through the University of South Carolina, earning a bachelor’s degree in English in 1946. In 1945, she married Paul Baker Newman and with him had three children: Virginia Elizabeth Newman (known as “Betsy”), born in 1948; William Royall Newman, born in 1951; and Paul Baker Newman, Junior, born in 1955. She continued her education at the University of Iowa, earning an M.A. in English in 1955. She and her family moved to several different places around the country while working toward her degrees, and in addition to collegiate and post graduate course work, she also spent a lot of time teaching at high schools, colleges, and universities, at such places as Chicago, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia and Kansas. She contracted a disease known as Guillian-Barre’ Syndrome in 1965, and was kept alive with a respirator for six weeks at the Duke University Medical Center. Guillian-Barre’ Syndrome is a condition similar to polio, which made it difficult for her to walk, especially for long distances. She and her family eventually settled in Charlotte, North Carolina where she secured a position as “instructor” at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her primary disciplinary interests were in modern and contemporary poetry, Southern literature, and the writings of John Dos Passos, Elizabeth Bishop, Julia Peterkin and Adrienne Rich. After a few years there, she took a leave of absence in early 1973 to pursue a PhD in English at the University of South Carolina, which she received late in 1974. While finishing up her dissertation, she returned to her teaching position at UNCC and was soon promoted from instructor to assistant professor and later to associate professor, eventually earning tenure. Dr. Newman was popular with her students and she enjoyed favorable remarks in her end-of-course evaluations from them, as well as from the English Department. Both department and students considered her an exemplary instructor. In 1976 she earned the NCNB Teacher of Excellence award and at one point, she was the president of the UNCC faculty. In her personal life, Dr. Newman enjoyed sailing, reading, gardening, playing bridge, collecting shells, and swimming. She died on September 15, 1982 at the age of 56 as the result of carcinoma.