I’m sure we all realise the power of the internet, and how trucknet spreads and helps us pick up old friends and workmates.
Some time ago I explained how during the early sixties Temp Newton sign wrote severa vans for us. One of these was 367MPT which Eddie Worthington has so kindly submitted photos he took in Scitland in 1963. I explained about how Temp signwrote Dents transport Atkinsons and Kenny Johnson exchanged various posts on the subject.
Strange as it seems Temp Newton’s wife has sent me an email telling me more about the later detais of his life.
I was married to Temp for over 32 years, till his death in 2004. He was
almost 74 years old then and had been in poor health for some time. He died
in San Antonio, Texas after a very successful career as a faux painter and
artist in the US. Before that he had taken a crew to London after his
business in Spennymoor failed. He worked for a year at Earl Spencer’s
house, Althorp, before Princess Diana married Prince Charles and also for
the Duke of Wesminster in London and then we emigrated. I remember his
stories of how he sign painted Dent’s trucks and vans. I have photos
somewhere of some of them and his pub signs too.
He worked on the homes of some of the rich and famous in this country,
although like most of us, he had good times and bad. Generally his health
caused him problems, he had both hips replaced over a 10 year period. But
he worked in Beverly Hills, and Las Vegas and many other states. His last
big job was a dome 30 foot across in the entry way to a 30,000 sq ft
mansion. He did it in two different colours of gold leaf and platinum leaf.
He designed an intricate pattern for it which took him two months to do
with prep work included. Fortunately, it was completely scaffolded and
floored for him. When he finished he said that was it for him with site
work. His hip was failing and he needed the other operation. After that we
moved to San Antonio and he enjoyed a quieter life painting and drawing and
learning to play the guitar. He loved to paint in oils and he sold some of
his work when we lived in Utah and later at an exhibition in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.
Thank you for thinking about him. I hope this fills in a gap? I know he was
very gifted in his work. Once in Beverly Hills, he was doing a wall in faux
marble and he heard the men who were laying the marble floor come into the
large hallway. He was around a corner chuckling at them, when one man asked
who was supplying the marble beside them? The other man told him it wasn’t
real, a guy from England was painting it onto the wall. The first man had
to touch it to believe him, he was so good at it!
sure I know him, I then put another couple of postson, but when I return I can not find them ?.
