Cynthia Newquist, 54, taught second-graders in Sandy Springs

Cynthia Newquist would draw a bath as soon as she got home from school.

She might be a little soiled and sweaty from playing with second-graders in her class at St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School in Sandy Springs.

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Family photo

Cynthia Newquist played basketball, ran track and was a cheerleader in high school.

“She came home every day and took a bath,” said her husband, Richard Newquist of Sandy Springs. “She’d be on the floor with them, doing whatever they were doing. She loved the children and loved teaching. I can’t tell you the students I’ve run into 20 years later who say that my wife was their favorite teacher.”

Cynthia Schumann Newquist, 54, of Sandy Springs died Saturday of nonsmoker’s lung cancer at her home. A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Friday at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody. Cremation Society of the South is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Newquist grew up in Marvell, Ark., where she played high school hoops, ran track and was a member of the cheerleading squad. She earned a bachelor’s degree in clothing and textiles from the University of Arkansas.

In the late 1970s, Mrs. Newquist moved to Jackson, Miss., where she worked full time at a shoe store and attended Mississippi College. She made straight A’s while earning a degree in elementary education, her husband said.

After graduating, she taught fourth grade at Jackson’s St. Therese Catholic School nearly three years. She and her husband moved to Atlanta in 1983, where she taught at St. Jude’s. She left the classroom to raise her two children, but didn’t lose her zest for education. In 1993, Mrs. Newquist joined the Philanthropic Educational Organization, a nonprofit that provides scholarships, grants and loans to women. She held several offices in a local Atlanta chapter, said Charlene Hall of Dunwoody.

“She helped us find candidates because we are always looking for people who need these scholarships,” she said. “She was very eager to help in anything she was asked to do and she did everything she was asked to do.”

She volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, too.

“Even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she still worked on a Habitat house,” her husband said. “I don’t know if she should have been there, but she did it.”

When Mrs. Newquist made a friend, it was for keeps. Kate Spinks of Sandy Springs knew her as a neighbor. “She has three different friends who live in different states that she has been friends with since she was 2 years old,” Mrs. Spinks said. “She had a wide circle of friends.”

Mrs. Spinks had been fond of a small table that Mrs. Newquist kept in her den. The table, Mrs. Newquist told her, had been purchased in Birmingham.

“She made sure that she found that table in Birmingham,” Mrs. Spinks said, “and gave it to me before she died.”

Survivors in addition to her husband include a daughter, Kate Newquist; a son, Adam Newquist, both of Sandy Springs; her mother, Sylvia Schumann of Marvell, Ark.; and a brother, Bill Schumann of Little Rock.