1919 or 1920-2005
Born in Alabama, raised in Newark, Newby attended Robert Treat and West Side High, where she was a member of the Glee Club and voted most likely to succeed vocally.
Newby designed and made dresses and was known as a fashion model. She studied fashion at Pratt and New York Manhattan Trade School. The New Jersey Herald News mentioned her designs as early as 1945 writing, “did you or have you seen her latest creation?” She was also covered in their society columns where the Herald News wrote in 1942, Newby was “popular as ever”.
From at least 1949, she was the fashion editor for After Hours magazine, based in Newark, writing articles such as “Best Dressed Men”. In 1949, she’s also listed as a professional model at the Fultz School of Modeling at 19 Quitman St.
In 1957, she retired from modeling and founded Rebecca’s Cookie Shoppe at 115 Wickliff St, which was billed as an “after hour snack shop” and named after her niece Cookie.
Later, she was a landlady for 115 Wickliff, and is listed in the newspaper after a fatal fire at the building. Then she was involved with a bar at 56 South Orange Ave, Newark.
She died in East Orange in 2005, as Rebecca Clark.
Bibliography
Aug 7, 1971, legal notice Star Ledger
Death notice, Star Ledger.
New jersey Herald News April 21, 1945