[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 7 (Thursday, February 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E110-E111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE HONORED

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 5, 1998

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, today eleven African-American women of 
distinction are being honored as part of the Essex County, New Jersey, 
Hospital Center's Third Annual Afrikan Heritage Month celebration. The 
vision of Carter G. Woodson to set aside some time to remember and pay 
tribute to our history and its people is one for which we will always 
be grateful. I am especially proud of this group of women for it is 
representative of our families and our society as a whole when it comes 
to being prepared and accomplished.
  The women being honored today are: Gail Thompson, Vice President of 
Design and Construction of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, our 
new $165 million, 255,000 square foot theater building and 
infrastructure on 12 acres; Carolyn Wade, President of Communications 
Workers of America Local, the largest local in New Jersey which 
represents 9,000 dues-paying members in both the public and private 
sectors; Senator Wynona M. Lipman, distinguished by her tenure as the 
only African-American female state senator for 21 years; Dorothy E. 
Grisby, a representative of the National Black Nurses Association, a 
national organization with 42 chapters that works to provide quality 
health care; Miriam E. Ferguson, a community advocate is also 
Superintendent of Recreation and Culture for the

[[Page E111]]

City of Hackensack, NJ; Mary F. Lewis, an Education Training 
Coordinator and the Site Administrator of the United Auto Workers/
General Motors Skill Center at the General Motors Corp. in Linden, NJ, 
became the first African American female electrician in General Motors 
in 1984; Dolores `Bobby'' Reilly, a former Montclair, NJ, Councilwoman 
became the first African American woman ever elected to political 
office in the town; Audrey Fletcher, a former Montclair Councilwoman 
serves as the Executive Director of the Montclair Child Development 
Center which provides comprehensive services to Montclair's children 
and their families; Desha L. Jackson, the first African American female 
Assistant Prosecutor for Ocean County, NJ; Marcia Wilson Brown, a law 
school graduate and community activist who has used her time and talent 
to assist urban cities to plan, develop and fund a variety of housing 
and community development programs to improve the quality of life for 
poor, low and moderate income persons and neighborhoods; and Cheryl 
Diane Lawrence, an adventurous, compassionate and civic-minded business 
woman is the founder of Blind Detective Agency, a provider of 
customized security services, a business she developed when she became 
permanently disabled as a result of an act of heroism while serving as 
the first female police officer at the Rutgers University Police 
Department.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sure my colleagues will want to join me in 
congratulating these individuals for this appropriate recognition as 
their ``labors of love'' are recorded in the annals of American 
history.

                          ____________________