By John Burton
RED BANK – In what Mayor Pasquale Menna estimated was long overdue, a portion of Marine Park was dedicated Friday, Nov. 14, to a borough favorite daughter.
A collection of current and former local officials joined state and Monmouth County representatives and family members in honoring Katharine Elkus White, whose distinguished career including serving as the borough’s mayor in the 1950s, in a number of state positions and as an ambassador representing the United States.
The group unveiled a sign at the foot of the park, overlooking the Navesink River, designating the area as Katharine Elkus White Circle.
“She remains an inspiration to all of us who followed her example and entered public service,” Menna told the gathering.
“I think she was a real trailblazer and pioneer,” former mayor Michael Arnone said. “She was for women’s equality long before they began calling it that.”
For state Senator Jennifer Beck, (R-11) White “paved the way for people like me” to go on, campaign and win elected office.
White, a Democrat, served as mayor from 1951-1956. She was not only Red Bank’s first and only female mayor, she also was the first woman elected mayor in New Jersey, according to Menna.
During those less than enlightened times, her political opposition during one of the campaigns used the slogan “Let’s Keep Katie in the Kitchen,” said Menna, a fellow Democrat.
Monmouth County Freeholder John P. Curley, a Republican, tagged White as Red Bank’s equivalent to Eleanor Roosevelt. “I remember my parents talking about what a great leader she was,” Curley said.
“She did inspire me to always do the right thing,” granddaughter Katharine White Mulvey of Middletown said of her grandmother.
Mulvey remembered spending time on her grandparents’ sprawling Elkridge Estate, as the White home was then known, on what is Ambassador Drive, the site of numerous parties, populated by political figures.
In addition to serving as mayor, White was the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, named by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. She remained in that post until 1968.
Previously, Gov. Robert B. Meyner in 1954 appointed her as a commissioner to the New Jersey Highway Authority, which operated the Garden State Parkway. The governor named her chairwoman of the authority in 1955, making White the first woman in the U.S. to head a toll-road authority
