Category: Born or raised in Newark (high school or before)
-
Rose A Leonardis
1916-2012 Lifelong Ironbound resident. Proprietor of the Rose A. Leonardis Funeral Home after the death of her father in 1953. She graduated from embalming school in 1950. She ran the funeral home until…
-
Mildred Roberts Helms
1907–2002 Community activist, encouraged the building of affordable housing in Clinton Hill. In 1972, she helped found the Clinton Hill Area Development Corp which built 151 units of housing in Clinton Hill Community…
-
Asimina Speros Zois
1909-1987 Arrived in Newark at age 7 from Greece, married in 1937 as “Minnie Speros”. Before marriage lived on Baldwin St (1930) and served as a bookkeeper. In 1927, she was listed as…
-
Rose Slavitt
1895-1969 Born in Newark, but grew up in New York for some years (1910). Back in Newark by 1915. First woman to manage a department at Prudential Insurance Co. in 1952. She was…
-
J. Isabelle Sims
c. 1873-1952 Prolific Newark social worker and lifelong Newarker. Directed Fresh Air Fund Camps for 32 years and would travel to be at the Summit camp even when in a wheelchair in later…
-
Dr. Sarah D. Smalley
1875-1952 A native of Newark who practiced in Newark from 1900-1952, for 52 years. She was active in the Newark Equal Suffrage League and a charter member of Zonta International. She was active…
-
Aileen Fong Shane
1926-2017 Born and raised in Newark’s Chinatown Aileen Fong Shane was an early woman engineer, graduating from Newark College of Engineering in 1946, at just age 19. In a 1947 article in the…
-
Helen Pollard Zimmer
1910-1980 Corporate secretary (secretary/treasurer) of Fidelity Union Bank from 1964-1975, previously assistant secretary 1961-1964 and with Fidelity from 1956. First woman officer of the bank and first woman in Newark to be elected…