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Jessie L. Creamer Cone
1880-1965 Jessie L Creamer was one of the founders of the College Women’s Club of Essex County in 1903 and president from 1912-1913. She taught at Belleville High and later is listed as a secretary for an auto service (1920 census). She was honored by the Club in 1960 and 1963. She was also a…
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Julia Sabine
1905-1990 Julie Sabine was head of the Art and Music Department at Newark Library. She worked at the library for over 40 years. She was a specialist in rare books, printing and fine prints. At the library, Julia was editor of the Newark Library newsletter for many years and organized the Great Books program. She…
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Sandra L West
1947-2019 Sandra West was a 1964 Weequahic graduate. She was the editor of the Black Organization for Students newsletter at Rutgers and first African American female editor of Rutgers Observer. Sandra worked as a journalist for Information published by the City of Newark, as well as in multiple other journalism positions and freelance for publications…
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Abigail Malmgreen
1909-2009 Abigail Malmgreen was a lifelong political activist, who lived to 100. Abigail was a member of the United Nations Association, Americans for Democratic Action, the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Givat Haviva Educational Association and the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (now New Jersey Peace Action) and was an organizer…
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Connie Williams Woodruff
1921-1996 Connie Woodruff was a journalist, labor organizer and civic activist. Connie was City editor of the New Jersey Herald News by 1952. She also wrote “On the Scene in Jersey” for the New York Amsterdam News. She wrote a weekly column “As I See It” in City News. She was also active on Cablevision…
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Nancy Zak
1948- Nancy Zak is a community organizer for environmental justice and housing with Ironbound Community Corporation. Nancy grew up in Lisle, IL and attended Mundelein University, now Loyola. She came to Newark in the early 1970s where she taught at Independence High School, an alternative school in Newark. By the late 1970s, she worked for…
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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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Esther K Untermann
1896-1989 Esther was the first woman secretary of the Newark Civil Defense Council and first woman to be named a judge, as a police judge, in Essex County. Esther organized the first eight chapters of B’nai B’rith. She was active on behalf of United Jewish Appeal and lifetime member of the Newark Beth Isreal Women’s…
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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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Pearl Beatty
1936-2019 Pearl Beatty was an Essex County freeholder (now county commissioner), who the New Jersey Globe called a “legendary veteran of Newark politics”. She said, “the only important tool an individual has is to vote.” President Giblin of the Essex Freeholders said she “lives, eats and breathes Essex County.” She was the sister of Alma…