Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
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Thelma Gillis
1916-2003 First woman and first non-law school grad assistant chief of the municipal court clerks of the City of Newark. Named in 1971, deputy municipal court clerk in 1965. She was the sister…
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Kitty (Kearney) V. Taylor
1926-2008 Attended Charlton Street School and South Side High. Senior citizen activist and radio host on WNJR with “The Kitty Taylor Show” and “Senior Citizens in Action”. She was named to the Mayor’s…
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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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Marie E Gonzalez
c. 1915-2006 Came to the US in 1929 and Newark in 1940. Called the “Puerto Rican Mayoress of Newark”. Chief stewardess of Ruberset Co. union. Formed the first interracial Boy Scout troop at…
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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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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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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…