1907-2000
Lucye Harrington Lee was known as a “volunteer extraordinaire” around Newark. Connie Woodruff said, “In an age where money often motivates people Lucye is the epitome of a true volunteer.” Lucye was also social editor of the New Jersey Afro American for many years starting in 1947.
At University Hospital, she was called the “real boss”, who volunteered helping patients and staff for decades, as President of the Auxiliary. She helped open gift and thrift shops, organize a grieving room, and dedicate a prenatal clinic. Lucye was a “master auxiliar” coordinating community health programs for hospital auxiliaries around the state through the NJ Hospital Association.
At the Urban League she was known as “Ms. Urban League Guild”, conducting membership drives and fundraising including a concert by Ella Fitzgerald and a Golf Classic, from 1947. She served as President of the guild from 1968-1970 and served on the board for eight years. She was the organizer for the Equal Opportunity Day annual dinner.
Lucye began writing for the Afro American as early as 1940 when her byline is under a “North Jersey Society column”, later she had a column called “Jersey Chatter”. Her bylines appear in the national Afro American through 1943. She wrote a column called “Women at Work”, which is 1941 featured Newark’s only Black librarian Theresa Knight. In 1947, Lucye was appointed social editor for the New Jersey Afro American where she met her husband the editor Davis Lee.
Lucye was born in North Carolina, and then went to live with her sister in Baltimore, when her family came to Newark. She attended Cooper Normal School but decided to be a secretary instead of a teacher and came to Newark to attend Newark Business College. “At the time a Black person didn’t even look at places like Prudential,” she said. After graduating she got a position with a lawyer, and then in the Newark Welfare Department and then worked in a variety of positions including Overbrook Hospital and the state Department of Public Utilities. “Everywhere I worked I was the first and only Black,” she said.
Lucye began volunteering with the elderly at the YWMCA and then with children who had nothing to do on the weekends. She taught Sunday School at the old 13th Ave Presbyterian Church and was chairwoman of it’s 120th anniversary. She worked with Project BABIES helping babies reunite with parents or find adoptive families. She was a fixture at the Fuld Friendly Neighborhood House, spearheading its Head Start program. She helped established a program for pregnant teens at Chestnut Street School. She conducted the East Orange campaign for the United Community Fund and she volunteered with the American Cancer Society.
Lucye was honored in a testimonial dinner in 1994. She spent much of her life in East Orange but also lived in Newark including on Somerset St.
Bibliography
Kukla, Barbara “Volunteer extraordinaire” Star Ledger Oct 3, 1994
Tiny Prince Collection, Newark Library https://archive.org/details/TP20Formal0110
Kukla, Barbara, “Lucye Harrington Lee the Ultimate Volunteer” Star Ledger July 30, 2000
Harrington, Lucye “North Jersey Society” Afro American Aug 17, 1940; “Women at Work” Mary 29, 1941; database of Afro American newspapers.com
Kukla, Barbara, “Y Opens a Showcase” Star Ledger Oct 12, 1972
“Essex Buys Sedan for Hospital Use” Newark News Mar 28, 1941
“Ella Concert Aids League” Newark News Apr 2, 1967
“Getting Together” Newark News Apr 19, 1970