Category: Social Work, Civic and Philanthropy
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Mildred Miller Free
1893-1939 Mildred Free was prominent in church and women’s circles. She was active in St. Philips Church and the NJ State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs of which she was Recording Secretary and Financial Secretary. She was active in the Phyllis Wheatly Society, where she was secretary, and the Lit-Muse Club. Mildred was also secretary,…
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Helen M Berry
c. 1878-1941 Helen Berry was very active in Essex County Republican politics and a member of the Essex County Board of Elections. From 1920-1924, she was vice chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee. From 1926, she was a member of the Republican State Committee, serving as Vice Chairman (1927-1931). In 1938, she was appointed…
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Grace Eubanks Malone
c. 1908-1994 Grace Malone was the first Black welfare director in New Jersey. She worked as a social worker for the city starting in 1931, and became director of welfare from 1964-1969. After her retirement served as director of the Northeast Region for the US Dept of Housing. Grace was a 1965 Rutgers Newark Graduate.…
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Pauline Sims Puryear
1900-1971 Miss Pauline Puryear was a social worker in Newark for many years. She’s famous nationally for being the 4th international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Dean of Women at Florida State A&M College. The 1930 census lists her as working for the NJ Urban League which was based in Newark. In 1939, there…
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Lydia Gelston Spring Osborne
1876-1958 The Star Ledger wrote “A tiny woman bubbling with good cheer Mrs. Osborne had become a familiar figure in almost every important civic enterprise since the 20s”. She said, “I love Newark, I remember Newark when you would greet everybody in town when you went out marketing. It’s very changed today”. Lydia was very…
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Eloise Frazer Gehin
c.1877-1941 Eloise Gehin was a leader in the Republican Party. She was the first woman to serve as Vice Chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee (1920) and first Essex woman member of the Republican State Committee (1921). Eloise was active in the General Wood Campaign Committee, president of the Calvin Coolidge Club (founded 1924),…
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Rose Danzis Parsonnet
c. 1900-2003 Rose Danzis was the daughter of Max Danzis, a founder of Beth Israel Hospital and Jennie Danzis, Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. She was married to Eugene Parsonnet, a cardiologist, and her son was Victor Parsonnet, renowned heart surgeon. Rose was involved with music throughout her life, “The house was filled with a Steinway grand,…
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Laura Champenois Wright Hedden
c. 1860-1950 Laura Hedden was a pioneer in the boys club movement in the 1930s and 1940s, establishing the first Boys Club on Halsey Street in 1908. In 1908, Star Eagle called her “one of the best known philanthropic women among the leaders of Newark’s social set.” Laura helped establish Excelsior Boys Club and the…