Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
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Thelma Williams Gillis
1916-2003 Thelma Gillis was the first woman and first non-law school grad assistant chief of the municipal court clerks of the City of Newark. Featured in the Afro American in 1972 she said, “the courts are just overloaded these days!” and “I have taken 25 civil services exams in the last 10 years and intend…
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Kitty V. Kearney Taylor
1926-2008 Kitty Taylor was a 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 Senior Citizen Commission in 1963 by Addonizio and served as public relations for director for the Commission, and later as assistant director. She later served on…
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Estrella Alonso Martinez
1924-1998 Estrella Martinez, with her husband Antonio, founded a Spanish restaurant, Spanish Tavern, in the Ironbound on McWhorter Street in 1963. This may have been the first Spanish restaurant in the area. Later they founded the Spanish Pavillion in Harrison. Estrella was a member of the Centro-Orensano Club. Estrella was a lifelong Newark resident, the…
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Marie E Gonzalez
c. 1915-2006 Marie E Gonzalez was called the “Puerto Rican Mayoress of Newark”. She was a specialist on Puerto Rican Affairs with the Newark Human Rights Commission from 1963-1981. She was Chairman of the City’s Advisory Council on Bilingual Programs and a founder of FOCUS. She is credited on “The Puerto Ricans in Newark, NJ:…
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Marie Foster Whigham
1923-2006 Marie Whigam helped her husband Charles Whigham to found Citi National Bank (1973) and Whigham Funeral Home. Mayor Sharpe James called her “the queen of our city”, saying “she was a role model for young and old”. Marie also founded the Women’s League, which raised money for scholarships and was active in the Boys…
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Amealia Steward
1915-2001 Amealia Steward owned Steward’s Restaurant and later redesigned Peppermint Lounge. She was a self-made millionaire. “She was our queen in the city said Mayor James, “She had wealth, beauty and fame.” Steward’s Restaurant first opened in 1949 on Prince Street and later moved to Avon Ave. Black Mirror News wrote, “When most people become…
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Ella Wright Moncur
1919-1999 Ella Moncur was born in Newark, lived in NYC in 1930. She was the wife of jazz artist and owned the Theatrical Beauty Salon in Newark, and also a salon called Monte’s Powder Puff. Ella later retired to Florida and taught there, her going away party featured in New York Age. She also was…
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Eugenia “Jeanne/Jean” (Byrd) Dawkins
c. 1926-1978 Eugenia Dawkins 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 Year and received a Key to the City. In 1977, she organized the “Newark Salutes Jazz” festival. Eugenia was a…