Category: Born or raised in Newark (high school or before)
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Miss Rhapsody Viola Wells
1902-1984 Born in Newark, Viola Wells, known as Miss Rhapsody was an internationally acclaimed jazz, blues and religious singer. In Newark, she sang for local jazz clubs in the 1920s and started out with the Salica Johnson Glee Club. She also performed in New York and nationally, playing with Count Basie’s Orchestra and the Harlem…
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Miriam Ogden Ball
1890-1968 Miriam Ball was from an old Newark family and was born in Newark. She was the daughter of Mary Depue Ogden. She was “presented” to Newark Society in 1909. She attended Wellesley College and worked briefly for the Newark Library; then returned to the library in 1934. In 1951, she was assigned to the…
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Mary Depue Ogden
1867-1960 Mary Depue Odgden was a member of a prominent New Jersey family, her father was a justice on the NJ Supreme Court. As a youth, the Newark News wrote, “she was one of the leaders of the young social set”. Mary was the editor of the Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey (4 volumes). Mary…
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Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein
1892-1991 Eliabeth Blume-Silverstein was born in Newark. She graduated the New Jersey Law School in Newark in 1911 (just a year after the first woman graduate Laura Mayo Wilson), but could not practice until she turned 21. In 1913, she was admitted to the Bar as an attorney and in 1917 as a counselor. Elizabeth…
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Esther R Newman
c. 1883 – 1901 Esther Newman was the first woman graduate of the NJ College of Pharmacy along with Emma Egge. She graduated in April and died in August due to appendicitis after an operation. She was listed as a prize winner at the graduation, graduating with high honors and had been appointed Chief Pharmacist…
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Emma Oschwald Egge
c. 1883-1960 Born in Newark, Emma was first woman to graduate the NJ College of Pharmacy in Newark, along with Esther Newman who died a few months later of appendicitis. In 1905, Emma passed exams to receive her license to practice. Emma was a pharmacist for Newark City Hospital for over 25 years. She helped…
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Frances “Fannie” Traphegen Rippel
1860-1943 Frances Rippel was president of the Home for Aged and Respectable Women from 1929-1934, and a longterm board member and volunteer. Frances was president of the Heidelberg Guild of the First Reformed Church. She was also active in the Newark Museum, NJ Historical Society and Daughters of the American Revolution. She worked for the…
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Margaret Douglas Haines
1884-1966 Margaret Haines was a lifelong resident of Newark. She was a member of the General Assembly from 1949-1953, taught at Garfield and Avon Ave Schools, was a canteen worker and ambulance driver in WWI and a Signal corps driver and USO Organizer in Newark in WWII. The Newark News called her “the antithesis of…