Category: 1870-1889 (Born)
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Lilian McNamara Garis
1873-1954 Lilan McNamara wrote for the Newark News in charge of “Women’s Work”, their first female reporter (“the first woman to be given regular salaried employment”). She married Howard Garis and wrote hundreds of books for the Stratemayer syndicate, some under pen names. Born in Ohio to Irish immigrants Winifred and Edward, she moved to…
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Grace Murphy
1882-1966 Grace Murphy (born Mary Grace Murphy) 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 of few women in business”. Grace was active in Catholic organizations, including former President of the…
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Clara L Scudder
1874-1930 Clara L Scudder was very accomplished on the piano and organ. She learned from her father David Scudder who was a member of Craig’s Orchestra. She went to Scotland and Europe to play in 1901-1902 (she appears on the 1901 Scotland Census as a visitor to Mary Jane Cargill in Glasgow) and William Ashby…
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Augusta Levine Parsonnet
1870-1949 Augusta Parsonnet was president of the Women’s Political Union of New Jersey. She was the first President of the League of Women Voters of Newark. She was also first President of the Ladie’s Guild of Beth Israel, a founder of Haddasah’s Newark Chapter and first President the Newark Council of Jewish Women. She also…
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Mary Colson Woody
c. 1877-1966 Mary C. Woody became the first licensed female funeral director in NJ in Newark in 1913. She opened a funeral home that bears her name in Orange, which is open to this day. Mary was born in Virginia and moved to Washington DC and then Newark with her husband, where her husband established…
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Cecil I Dorrian
1882-1926 Cecil I. Dorrian (1882-1926) was a war reporter for the Newark News (WWI). She wrote a weekly column and traveled Europe and was the first accredited female reporter to go to the front lines. She was a playwright and wrote a play that was performed nationally. Cecil said, “They must know what it is…
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Melinda Scott
1876-1954 Melinda Scott was an English immigrant and President of a Hat Trimmers Union in Newark & worked for suffrage including being part of a delegation to President Wilson. She was also a key figure in the labor movement and later was a Newark tax commissioner, the first woman on the Newark Tax Board and…
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Grace Baxter Fenderson
1882-1962 Grace Baxter Fenderson (1882-1962) was one of the first African American teachers in the Newark Public Schools and taught for 42 years, helped found the Newark Branch of the NAACP and served on the board of the Sojourner Truth branch of the YWCA. She was president of the Lincoln-Douglass Memorial Association. From 1936, she…