Linda King was born on January 16, 1941, to Foisy Earl King and Pearl King in Richfield, Utah. She grew up in Fillmore, Utah, and attended the Southern Utah University, studying art and education on a scholarship. She graduated in 1963.[3] Newell married her husband, L. Jackson, in 1963 and they had three children together.[3]
Mormon studies
While Newell did not have formal training as a historian, she achieved prominence for her work in Mormon studies. Mormon Enigma, her biography of Emma Smith received the interpretive history prize from the Mormon History Association. This and her other articles examining how women's power in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) diminished after the 1950s caused her to be blacklisted by Mormon leaders. She was not allowed to speak about Mormon history at LDS Church events or meetinghouses, and her work was not allowed to be cited in church-published material.[3]