Marion Cheever Whiteside

Marion Cheever Whiteson was born on 23 March 1902, the daughter of Dr. George Shattuck Whiteside and Adeline Haven Cheever Whiteside. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, attended boarding school in Rhode Island, and entered Radcliffe College in September 1920. Later, she studied art at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York City and at the Julien Academy in Paris. When she returned to the United States in 1928, she began exhibiting her art in shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Haven.

Marion Cheever Whiteson married Roger Hale Newton in 1934; they moved to New York City, where Marion established herself as a freelance artist. In 1940, Marion Newton designed and made an appliqué Bible quilt for her nephew. He liked it so well that she began to design other quilts based on classic children's stories. She built a small cottage industry, Story Book Quilts, that produced hand-made quilts and quilt kits. By her death in 1965, Marion Newton's business had produced more than 3,000 appliqué quilts.