Reta Newman

Reta Mae (Hardin) Jarvis Newman, 81, longtime Seminole county resident, passed from this life on Sunday, January 3, 2016, at her home north of Seminole. Memorial services will be held at 2:00 P.M., Thursday, January 7, 2016 at the Praise Center Assembly of God Church, east of Little. Pastor Chris Lee will officiate the services. Reta was born to Benjamin Leslie Hardin and Ruby (Briggs) Hardin on October 2, 1934, near Wanette, Oklahoma. They moved from there in 1945 to 4 miles South of Ada, Oklahoma. Reta attended school at  Ahloso Elementry School, then high school in Stonewall, where she was an active basketball player. She met Leroy Jarvis at East Central College in Ada, Oklahoma, and they were married in 1952 after a short engagement. Reta moved to Little, Oklahoma where she and her husband ran a dairy, and Leroy worked for the Soil Conservation, building flood control dams in the 1950’s and 60’s. When they switched from the dairy to beef cattle operation, she went back to school and obtained her Bachelor of Science in Education from East Central in 1967. Reta taught home economics and science for Varnum and Seminole Public Schools. She was also the Administrative Assistant at the Seminole Police Department for several years. Later, she married Dave Newman, and together they continued to run cattle on the farm west of Little. She and Dave loved to travel. She was active in the community and attended the Praise Center Assembly of God Church at Little. She was a great cook and on one occasion she even sold a coconut cream pie for $150.00 to benefit the Strother Volunteer Fire Department at Little. Reta was the family matriarch and the hub of the cousins who depended on her as the keeper of the family history. For years she planned family reunions for both the Hardin and the Briggs families. She was a much-loved cousin. She is survived by her granddaughter, Tess Jarvis Suter and her husband, Zachary Ryan Suter of the home; great grandson, Zachary Grant Suter of the home; her brother Jim Hardin and his wife Donna of Seminole, Oklahoma; her sister Minnie Nokes and her husband Jackson of Ada, Oklahoma; brother-in-law, Bill Dulaney of Wynnewood, Oklahoma; daughter-in-law, Rhonda Jarvis Skrdla, many cousins and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husbands, Leroy Jarvis; Dave Newman, Sister, Jean Dulaney and her son John Phillip Jarvis and two infant daughters Jena Lynn and Neta Kathryn. Funeral Information: January 7, 2016, 2:00 PM Praise Center Assembly of God Church located at Highway 99 A, Little, OK 74868