Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
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Sally Carroll
1922-2019 Sally Carroll was one of the first Black policewomen in Newark along with Rhoda Daniels and Eleanor M. Stokes in 1949 . She was the first Black woman detective with the Essex County Sherriff’s Office. She was active with the Batons. After entering the police in 1949, she took the Civil Service promotional exams…
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Mildred Preen
1918 – 1979 Mildred Preen, graduate of West Side High in Newark was the first woman to graduate in Electrical Engineering at Newark College of Engineering, was an Assemblywoman (the first woman to do so in Hunterdon County), private pilot, and served with the WAVES in WWII. Mildred graduated Newark College of Engineering in 1938.…
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Gladys Barker Grauer
1923-2019 Gladys Grauer was a Newark artist called “Newark’s matriarch of the arts”, who launched the Aard Studio Gallery in Newark in 1971, on Bergen Street. She also was a commercial art teacher in the Vo-Tech schools for 15 years. Her work has been displayed locally and nationally. Gladys also ran for office with the…
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Mary C McKeon
1913-1997 Mary McKeon was the first woman president of the NJ Associations of Life Underwriters and the Newark-NJ Association of Life Underwriters. She was the first woman to be a division manager in Prudential Life insurance sales in 1952. She worked in Newark and Montclair. She said, “I was scared to death when I joined…
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Larrie West Stalks
1925-2015 Larrie Stalks was Essex County Register from 1974-1994. Larrie worked at Western Electric and for Local 1286, before she started at City Hall in 1946. She worked her way up through City Hall while also working for Congressman (later Mayor) Addonizio. In 1950, Stalks protested against Far Eastern Restaurant, a downtown Chinese restaurant, for…
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Bernice Maxwell Cross
c. 1918-2011 Bernice Cross worked at the Star Ledger all her life, from 1939 to 2004. She coordinated several sections of the paper as part of the editorial staff. She also served as a receptionist. For many years she was also a popular soprano singer, who enjoyed singing in choirs. Bernice was one of the…
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Pryno B Hillman
c. 1916-1963 Pryno B. Hillman was founder and president of the Mary McLeod Bethune Social Club, affiliated with the NJ State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. Pyrno was an organizer and director of creative and performing arts at Central Avenue Community Center. She was a charter member and first president of the Newark branch of…
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Maria DeCastro Blake
1911-2001 Maria DeCastro Blake was a dean of admissions at Rutgers and recruited hundreds of Hispanic students. She was one of the founders of ASPIRA, a founding member of the Puerto Rican Congress of New Jersey, founder and president of the Association for Professional Education of Puerto Ricans, a founding member of FOCUS and involved…