Myra Smith Kearse
Myra Smith Kearse was an American physician and community leader in New Jersey.
Early life
Myra Lyle Smith was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, the daughter of T. Parker Smith and Clara Alexander Smith. Her father was an educator, and founded a business college in Richmond. Her mother was also an educator.She graduated from Howard Academy in 1917, earned a bachelor's degree at Howard University in 1922, and was the only woman in the 1925 graduating class of the Howard University College of Medicine. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Career
Kearse was the first African American woman physician in Union County, New Jersey when she began to practice there in 1938. She joined the staff of a Newark hospital during World War II. She held a patent on a "pocket calendar device with punch means" for tracking one's menstrual cycle. She retired from medical practice in 1966.In 1964, Kearse and Vera Brantley McMillon began collecting and sharing oral histories of African-American life in New Jersey, to mark the state's tercentenary; their work culminated in the publication of Negroes of New Jersey, 1715-1967: A Bibliography. She served on the executive committee of the Union County Anti-Poverty Council, until she retired from the council in 1970. She was a founding member of the county's College Women's Club.