Anale Newton Yarbrough
Obituary Notice
Anale Newton Yarbrough, 81, who was Director of Volunteers & Development at Camp Aldersgate from 1983 to 1986, Administrative Assistant in Attorney General Jim Guy Tucker's office from 1972 to 1976, Special Assistant to Congressman Tucker in Washington from 1977 to 1978, Overseas Director for American Field Service in Thailand from 1967 to 1972, a member of the AFS/USA Board of Directors from 1987 to 1990, and served AFS in Arkansas in many volunteer capacities for over thirty years, died of cancer on February 18th 2002 at her home in Little Rock.
Anale Yarbrough was born in Hope and grew up in Hope and Little Rock. She graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1938 and from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri in 1940. After years spent in Dallas and in Southeast Asia, she and her husband moved to historic Butterfield Place at the base of Pinnacle Mountain in 1972, where they hosted innumerable gatherings of friends, until they returned to Little Rock in 1998. She was an active member of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, a member of Arkansas Press Women and the National Federation of Press Women, and a member of Governor Bill Clinton's Advisory Council on Volunteerism. She was most recently a volunteer at the Clinton Library Archives, senior spooner and spiritual director at the wall constructed at Lee and Ash, and a signer of the Statement of Concern against the war in Iraq which appeared in the Democrat Gazette on February 13th.
Anale Yarbrough was a fifth generation Arkansan. Her parents were Basil E. Newton and Annie Forney Newton of Hope and Little Rock. Her sister, Alice Newton Gray, Director of the Little Rock Public Library, died in 1979. Her husband of 58 years, William C. Yarbrough, died in 1999.
Survivors include two sons, Bill Yarbrough Jr. of Austin Texas and Ken Yarbrough of Flagstaff Arizona, a daughter, Anne Yarbrough of Washington DC, her adopted son Surin Pitsuwan, M.P., of Bangkok Thailand; ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Friends are invited to a memorial service at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church on Friday, February 21st, at 10:00 a.m. with a reception at the church afterward. Private burial will follow. In lieu of flowers, a contribution may be made in Anale's memory to American Field Service USA/198 Madison Ave, 8th floor/ New York NY 10016; Camp Aldersgate /2000 Aldersgate Rd/ Little Rock 72205; or to Heifer Project International/ 1015 Louisiana St/ Little Rock 72202. Arrangements are made by Ruebel funeral home.