Category: LGBT+
-
Carolyn Whigham
1949- Carolyn Whigham owns and runs Whigham Funeral Home and is known for skill in organizing funerals including for celebrity clients. She became director of Whigham Funeral Home in 1986 and has run over 6000 funerals including for Houston family and Congressman Donald Payne. She also hosted How to Conduct High Profile Funerals” seminars across New…
-
Debra Holmes
1953- Holmes was one of the first women in NJ to graduate as a Journeyman, Machinist, Tool & Die Maker / Mechanical Engineer. She worked at Westinghouse and then Anhueser-Busch in Newark, where she was the only female Machinist and Mechanical Tech Planner in the history of the company. Holmes worked at Anhueser-Busch for 32…
-
Marleny Franco
1955- Marleny Franco is the founder of the Greater Newark Conservancy. She was executive director of the Conservancy for many years. She was previously director of the Rutgers Urban Gardening Program in Newark. Marleny was born in Colombia. She lived in Newark from the early 1980s to about 2000. She came to Newark, after attending…
-
Linda H. Morley and Adelaide C. Kight
1885-1972, 1889-1972 Linda Morley was head of the business branch of Newark Public Library after Sarah Ball and before Marian Manley from 1917(1919?)-1926. With Adelaide Kight she wrote “2400 business books and guide to business literature” (1920) and “Business books 1920-1926” (1927). The Wilson Bulletin called Kight and Morley the “moving spirits of Newark’s Business…
-
Laquetta C Nelson
1955- Advocate for gay and lesbian rights. Co-founder of the Newark Pride Alliance. Awarded the 2004 Community Service Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Founder of the NJ Stonewall Democrats. Bibliography Queer Newark “Awards Honor Unsung Heroes and Future Leaders” Star Ledger Apr 21, 2005 The Advocate “In a Progressive State Where…
-
Janyce Jackson Jones
1951- Janyce Jackson Jones was co-Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church located in Newark, NJ. Prior to UFC, she served as Pastor of Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church for which she was a founding member in 1995. Janyce was executive Director of the Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center, which provided support, groups, education and…
-
Delores DeCarlo Alexander
1931-2008 Lesbian feminist writer and reporter Delores Alexander was born in Newark and worked for the Newark Evening News. Later she worked at Newsday, was the first executive director of NOW, and opened a feminist restaurant in New York. Delores was born Delores DeCarlo in Newark in 1931. She lived on Sylvan Ave (1940 and…
-
Hilda Hidalgo
1928-2009 Hilda Hidalgo was a Newark activist. In Newark, she co-founded Aspira of New Jersey, La Casa de Don Pedro and the Puerto Rican Congress and worked with numerous other community organizations. Hilda came to Newark in 1960 and worked as district director for the Girl Scouts, then director of Child Services, until 1970. She…