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Joan Carney Newsum OBITUARY

Joan Carney Newsum, age 101, passed away in her home surrounded by family on August 10, 2026. She was born on March 7, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York to Bessie and Daniel Carney. She graduated from Manhattan’s Washington Irving High School in 1943. Joan attended New York University. Joan married Fitzroy Newsum, a captain in the U.S. Air Force (and a Tuskegee Airman), in 1949.

During her husband’s 27-year Air Force career, Joan lived on military bases in New York, France, Louisiana, Colorado (Lowry Air Force Base) and Kansas, and raised the couple’s four children. Determined to set an example for her children by completing her college education, Joan earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education from Wichita State University in 1969. Joan and Fitzroy returned to Denver in 1970. A special education teacher, Joan taught in Denver Public Schools and then began her second career as a civilian employee at Lowry AFB.

Joan was active in the Denver Urban League and Park Hill’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church. She was an avid skier, hitting the slopes and trails in New York, France, and Colorado. Joan was also a passionate traveler: she and her husband journeyed to Europe, South America, the Caribbean and South Pacific as well as many locations throughout the United States and Canada. In recent years, she enjoyed long drives through Colorado’s mountains and plains and weekend happy hours with her children, son-in-law, and grandchildren.

Joan is survived by her four children: Brian Newsum, Dani Newsum (Ron), Eric Newsum (Darnell), and Gail Newsum; her four grandchildren, Nicholas, Taylor, McKenna (Anthony), and Savannah. She was preceded in death by her husband, Fitzroy; her parents, Bessie and Daniel Carney; her brothers, Daniel and Harold; and her granddaughter, Marissa Newsum-Schoenberg.

Funeral services will be held at Shorter Community AME Church in Denver on Monday, August 31 at 8:30 a.m. Joan’s burial service will be at Fort Logan National Cemetery at 1 p.m.