[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 23, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E4-E5]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN MEMORY OF GLADYS J. HERRON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 23, 2002

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate Gladys J. Herron, who 
passed from this life on December 5, 2001, at the age of 87 years. 
Gladys was an activist, teacher, mentor, and friend, a businesswoman 
and a woman of God. Her life is a story of richness born of struggle 
and of quiet triumph over oppressive odds.

[[Page E5]]

  Born in Florida, Gladys came to Toledo with her family in 1924. She 
attended Toledo schools and its university, and married a firefighter, 
Capt. Robert D. Herron, from whom she was widowed.
  Gladys' fortitude first became publicly apparent when, in response to 
the discrimination prevalent at the time, she founded the first beauty 
school for young black women. The Herron Beauty School was the first 
black school of cosmetology in the Toledo area, and it eventually 
yielded twenty independent beauty salons. Hundreds of women owe their 
businesses and careers to this persevering, dignified woman. In 1955, 
she became the president of the Ohio Association of Beauticians, and 
she also served as president of the Toledo Beauticians and the Toledo 
Business Women's Club. She accomplished this at a time when racial 
equality and women-owned enterprises were only horizons on the American 
landscape.
  She mothered our community in every way. Continuing in community 
activism, Mrs. Herron was involved in more than a dozen organizations 
including 1970s-era social programs CETA, SASI, EOPA and PIC, Toledo 
Affirmative Action, the Urban League, NAACP, the Head Start Policy 
Council, the Cordelia Martin Health Center Board, the Lucas County 
Welfare Advisory Board (which she chaired for fifteen years), the 
Concerned Women for Better Government (of which she was a charter 
member), the Perry Burroughs Democratic Club and the Lucas County 
Democratic Party. A religious woman, Mrs. Herron also served her 
church, Third Baptist Church, singing in the Sanctuary Choir and 
serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, the Advisory Council, and 
the 20th Century Literary Club.
  Not content to rest on the laurels of her earlier years or settle 
down into retirement, Gladys in her later years was a founding leader 
in the senior citizen movement, involved in both the AARP and the Area 
Office on Aging of Northwest Ohio. It was Mrs. Herron's tireless effort 
and expert leadership which led to the establishment of the J. Frank 
Troy Senior Center. She was the center's first director, and together 
with two other Toledo women who established centers in other parts of 
the city, made up the core of senior rights in our region. I appointed 
her as our district's delegate to the decennial White House Conference 
on Aging held in 1995, where she represented her fellow seniors most 
ably and admirably.
  Gladys Herron leaves an imprimatur on our community and in our 
hearts. Her passing writes the preface to a new chapter in American 
life that will be felt through generations and will be better for all 
because of her vigilance, faith, and vision.

                          ____________________