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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…
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Dolores Collins Benjamin
1913-2007 Founded the North Jersey Philharmonic Glee Club. Founded in her Newark, N.J. home in 1939, the all-male African-American choral group is one of the nation’s longest continuously performing ensembles of its kind. Bibliography Obituary, News-Herald, December 14, 2007. Kukla, Barbara. Sounds of Music: The Dolores Collins Benjamin Story Kukla, Barbara. “Dolores Collins Benjamin Glee…
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Lillian B Huff Stewart
1909-2007 Social writer, social editor of the New Jersey Herald News in Newark. Reporter who covered all kinds of stories according to Robert Queen. He says she was working as a waitress when she began to write for the Herald. On the 1930 census she is listed (at age 23) as a private family nurse.…
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Dr. Meta Anderson Post
c. 1889-1942 Dr. Meta Anderson was the director of Special Education for the Newark Public Schools from 1922 until 1942 when she was killed in an accident. She entered the school system in 1910 as “head teacher of mentally defective classes” and became supervisor in 1914. Meta took a leave of absence from the schools…
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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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Elizabeth Clementine Dodge Kinney
1810-1889 Elizabeth Kinney was called “one of the cleverest women that ever lived in Newark”. She wrote for The Knickerbocker Magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and Graham’s Magazine. She contributed to the Advertiser where she “took charge of the literary department” , writing “all the book notices & critiques which appeared in it, besides many original articles on various subjects”.…