On July 7, 1951, Joanna Leapheart Newman was born in Atkins, Arkansas, to Cummitt Morris Leapheart and Lois Geneva (Brooks) Leapheart. She was the eighth child and youngest daughter among twelve siblings. Joanna spent her earliest years in the loving care of her paternal grandparents, Eddie and Tobitha Leapheart, in Happy Bend, Arkansas, before joining her parents and siblings in Kansas City, Kansas, where she spent the remainder of her childhood.

From an early age, Joanna possessed an insatiable curiosity, an exceptional memory, and a deep love of learning. An avid reader, she excelled at Wyandotte High School, graduating in 1969 and later earning degrees from Tarkio College and the University of Kansas. By the age of twelve, in 1963, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She was baptized at Zion Travelers Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas, beginning a lifelong walk of faith that would shape every aspect of her life.

Whether someone knew Joanna as a wife, mother, sister, professor, psychologist, church leader, colleague, neighbor, or friend, they encountered the same woman: intellectually curious, deeply faithful, fiercely loving, funny, and unwavering in her convictions. She possessed a remarkable ability to bring clarity to complexity, direction to uncertainty, and calm to chaos. She was a historian who preserved stories, a strategist who solved problems, a truth teller who gently shared her wisdom, and a mentor who recognized people’s potential long before they recognized it themselves. Her son affectionately called her “The Little General,” a moniker that perfectly described the woman so many others also grew to know, trust, and love.

Joanna began her career serving the Kansas City community as a therapist and counselor in the Mental Health Department, and later as Executive Director of the George Washington Carver Neighborhood Center. While working at the Mental Health Department, she met the love of her life, John L Newman. They married on October 15, 1977, beginning a partnership rooted in faith, laughter, mutual respect, and unwavering devotion that would span nearly five decades. Together, they welcomed their son, John Michael, in 1978, and their daughter, Jamila Jani Lois, in 1979.

Professionally, Joanna devoted her life to understanding people and strengthening the organizations and communities they shaped. Trained as an industrial psychologist, she built a distinguished career in mental health, higher education, organizational development, teaching, research, and community leadership. While raising a family, she continued her graduate and doctoral studies and taught first at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, before joining the faculty at the University of Arkansas in 1990, where she mentored students, advised colleagues, contributed to research, and helped prepare future leaders until her retirement. Though she was widely respected for her scholarship and professional accomplishments, those closest to her knew that her greatest joys were always her faith and her family.

A devoted member of St James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Joanna faithfully served as a Deaconess, Sunday School teacher, Board Trustee, food pantry volunteer, and member of the Legends Senior Ministry. She understood service not as an obligation but as an expression of her love for God and others. She loved gathering family around the table, traveling, preserving family history, learning people’s stories, and celebrating birthdays with a phone call and a song sung “slightly” off key. She offered practical wisdom, honest counsel, and unwavering encouragement to generations of family, friends, students, and colleagues. She taught her children to stand confidently in who they were, to speak up for themselves and others, and to never diminish themselves to make others comfortable. Her legacy is found not only in the degrees she earned and the positions she held, but also in the people she shaped, the family she anchored, the faith she lived, and the countless lives she strengthened through her wisdom, generosity, and love.

Joanna was preceded in death by her beloved husband, John L Newman; her parents, Morris and Lois; her brothers, Eddie Lee Leapheart, Alvin Hardin, and Serschel Leapheart; her sisters, Blanchie Faye Leapheart and Willie Ethel Leapheart; her brother-in-law, Herman Newman; her nephews, Gerald Leapheart, Jeffrey Sheely, Vaughn Newman Jr., and Damon Dotson; her nieces, Sheila Leapheart Burnham and Kathy O’Neal; her paternal grandparents, Eddie and Tobitha; and her maternal grandparents, Henry and Estella Brooks.

Joanna leaves to cherish her memory her son, John Newman, and his fiancée, Hannah Savage, along with Dane, Loren, and Olivia, whom Joanna loved dearly; her daughter, Jamila Newman; her six siblings, Morris Leapheart Jr., Dr. Willie Hardin, Tillie O’Neal, Herschel (Terry) Leapheart, Ronald (Tabitha) Leapheart, and Donald Leapheart; sisters-in-law, Diane Dotson, Michelle (Patrick) Buckner, and Virlee Newman; and brother-in-law, Vaughn Newman; cherished members of her extended family, including Mary Lois Coffey Hardin, Rosalind Leapheart, Lois Leapheart, Carolyn Leapheart, and Sallie Stroud, along with a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, godchildren, dear friends, former colleagues, church family, and all whose lives were enriched by knowing her.

The family will receive friends from 5-7 PM Friday, July 31, 2026 at Beard’s Funeral Chapel.

Funeral services will be 12:00 PM Saturday, August 1, 2026 at St James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville.