Newton, William Edward, 1914-1994.

Chicago musician, artist, and designer.

Willliam Edward Newton was born in Williston, North Dakota, in 1914, and attended but did not complete high school in Minot, North Dakota. He played in the school band, but was otherwise a self-taught musician. He began working with dance bands in 1933, playing trumpet and trombone. He married Ethyl McKeough (1915-1983) in 1934. The couple moved to Chicago in 1937, where he continued his musical career both as a band musician and playing solo piano in bars, nightclubs, and restaurants. He served in the U.S. Army in 1945 as band leader at Fort Lee, Virginia; subsequently he studied for one year at the School of the Art Institute. He worked as a graphic designer, first for the Summy-Birchard publishing company, then in the Chicago offices of Harper & Row. He also did a variety of free-lance projects for local clients, among them the Candy Manufacturing Co. and Replogle Globes, Inc. He started composing and arranging music in the 1950s, and he created music in many styles and for many combinations of instruments. Willliam Edward Newton died in 1994.