Category: Business & Entrepreneur
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Estrella Alonso Martinez
1924-1998 Lifelong Newark resident, daughter of Spanish immigrants. With her husband Antonio, founded what they claim was the first Spanish restaurant in the area – the first Spanish Tavern in the Ironbound in…
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Diane Sutton
1941-2001 Co-owned Je’s Restaurant. The first restaurant in Downtown Newark founded by people of color. Mayor Sharpe James called her “the heart and soul of downtown Newark”. Photo from Newark NJ Memories. Bibliography…
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Marie Foster Whigham
1923-2006 Helped her husband Charles Whigham to found Citi National Bank and Whigham Funeral Home. Mayor Sharpe James called her “the queen of our city”. Founded the Women’s League and active in the…
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Amealia Steward
1915-2001 Owned Steward’s Restaurant and Peppermint Lounge. Self-made millionaire. Bibliography Kukla, Barbara J. Newark Women: From Suffragettes to the Statehouse. Kukla, Barbara J. “City Mourns Loss of Many Leaders, Educators and Young Victims”…
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Grace Murphy
1882-1966 Founded Murphy Funeral Home on Roseville Avenue and operated it until her death for 26 years. Her obituary listed her as one of “the few women morticians in New Jersey” and “one…
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Ella Wright Moncur
1919-1999 Born in Newark, lived in NYC in 1930. Wife of jazz artist, owned the Theatrical Beauty Salon in Newark, and also a salon called Monte’s Powder Puff. Later retired to Florida and…
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Emma Coleman
1864-1935 Ran Coleman National Business College in Newark after the death of her husband in 1903. Bibliography NJ Women’s Project, “Past and Promise: The Lives of NJ Women” (extensive) Kukla, Barbara J., “Newark…
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Eugenia “Jeanne/Jean” (Byrd) Dawkins
c. 1926-1978 Owned the Key Club, one of Newark’s most famous jazz clubs, with her husband. She ran the club after her husband died In 1976 she was named Newark’s Woman of the…