Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
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Everane (Eva) Crump Harris
1913-2006 Eva Harris was 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. She lived in the Ironbound for the rest of her life. Eva Harris was a teacher’s aide at Hawkins Street School for many years. She was…
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Rose A Leonardis
1916-2012 Rose A Leonardis was a lifelong Ironbound resident. She graduated from embalming school in 1950 and was the proprietor of the Rose A. Leonardis Funeral Home on Ferry Street after the death of her father in 1953. Rose ran the funeral home until she retired in 1999. Rose was active in many organizations including…
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Margaret (Peggy) Officer Lista
1913-2013 Margaret (Peggy) was inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 for being a basketball and track standout at Central High in the late 1920s. She also was a cheerleader and dancer. She was president of the Girls Athletic Association. As of 1930, she was the only girl at Central ever to…
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Anna Lois Russ Jones
1911-1987 Anna Jones was the mother of Amiri Baraka who was active in the community in education and civic activism, and a champion sprinter in her youth. She was also administrator of Community Hospital, Newark’s Black hospital, for many years. Born in Alabama, Anna lived in Newark from around 1926. She attended Tuskegee, Fisk, and…
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Sarah (Sara) Catherine Howard Johnson
1907-1993 Sarah Johnson was one of the first African American nurses in the Visiting Nurses Association of Newark, where she worked from 1930-1950. She was a nurse at Hawkins Street School from 1965-1977. Sarah received degrees from Tuskegee Institute (1929) and Seton Hall. She was a member of the Graduate Nurses Association. She was a…
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Aileen Fong Shane
1926-2017 Born and raised in Newark’s Chinatown Aileen Fong Shane was an early woman engineer, graduating from Newark College of Engineering in 1946, at just age 19. In a 1947 article in the Star Ledger she was called an “outstanding female student” who graduated “near top of her class.. one of few woman mechanical engineers…
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Helen Pollard Zimmer
1910-1980 Helen Zimmer was corporate secretary (secretary/treasurer) of Fidelity Union Bank from 1964-1975 and previously assistant secretary 1961-1964 and with Fidelity from 1956. Helen was the first woman officer of the bank in Newark and the first woman in Newark to be elected corporate secretary. She said, “I’m waiting for company. There’s plenty of opportunity!”…
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Marion Roberson Kidd
1928-2012 Marion Kidd was a community activist working for welfare rights, who also worked many years with the North Jersey Community Union. In 1966, she led a group of welfare mothers to complain about welfare issues to the Essex County Welfare Board. In 1967, she was chairwoman of the UCC Welfare Committee, for Area Board…