Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
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Fanny Tuell (Faye Adams, Scruggs, Jones)
1923-2016? Pioneering R&B singer who had several chart-topping hits in the 1950s, including 1953 hit “Shake a Hand”. Active from the 1940s-1960s. Born in Newark as Fanny Tuell and lived at 588 North…
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Modina Boyd Davis Watson
1926-1994 Hairdresser, makeup artists, assistant, secretary, stylist and “gal Friday” for Sarah Vaughan who traveled the world with Vaughan from 1950-1960. Modina met Vaughan at Arts High where they became close friends. Later,…
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Elizabeth “Betty” Hoyt Baker Henderson
1912-1999 Elizabeth Henderson, with her husband Dorland, bought and preserved, Newark’s oldest private residence: the Sydenham House, getting so involved that they lived as in colonial times in many ways, she wove cloth…
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Bernice Schneiderman Edelcreek
1927-2015 Born and raised in Newark, Bernice Edelcreek said “Newark was the only place I ever really wanted to teach.” A physical education teacher, she was named Newark’s Teacher of the Year in…
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Eva Hodgson
1924-2020 Eva Hodgson was an internationally known Bermudian activist, union leader and author (read more here). However, she had an important Newark connection and was in Newark for a significant time period. In…
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Bessie Lanier Smith
1924-1966 Bessie Lanier was born in Virginia but graduated Arts High in 1942 with a major in music. She was prominent in the Clinton Hill anti-poverty activities with United Community Corporation and as…
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Everane (Eva) Crump Harris
1913-2006 Born in Pleasantdale, NJ but lived in Newark by 1930 and in the Ironbound at 101 Hawkins St by 1950, after her first husband died, and for the rest of her life.…
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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…