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. In 1940, she’s listed as a newspaper reporter. In 1939 she interviewed Mary McLeod Bethune.
She wrote the “All Around” Column” in the Herald. She’s also listed as a hostess at Hughe Allison’s play “Midnight Over Newark” in 1941. She was then made the New Jersey Representative for the Afro American in 1942. Her day job was likely at the VA, as in 1946 she had to move as she was “transferred to the Veteran’s Administration office in Philadelphia”. She was a bookkeeper for over 50 years and a member of the NAACP in Union, living much of her life in Vauxhall and New York.
A Lillian Huff of about the same age is listed in the Seneca tribe in New York through 1924 (and not on any other census). She appears at the Thomas Indian School in 1920. This may not be the right person but it’s an interesting possibility.
Bibliography
Krueger Scott Interview, Robert Queen (misidentified as “Lillian Hunt”)
Digitized by Newark Library: “Lillian Huff”, “Lillian B Huff”
“Gives Farwell Party” New York Age , Sept 21, 1946, pg. 5
“Congrats to Sister Scribe” New York Age, Feb 21, 1942, pg. 5
“Bassett, Edith L.” (mothers death notice), Star Ledger, Jan 6, 1986
“Lillian B. Stewart”, Star Ledger, Jan 28, 2007
Afro American Morgue Huff, Lillian B
US Indian Census, US Federal Census
Thomas Indian School Student List
Letter from Newark Eagles Papers
“It’s Midnight Over Newark” Program
Funeral Program, Barbara J. Kukla Papers