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Elsie Hillman
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Elsie Hillman
Elsie Hilliard Hillman (December 9, 1925 – August 4, 2015) was a Pittsburgh based philanthropist and a former Republican National Committeewoman. She was the wife of billionaire industrialist Henry Hillman. During her life, Hillman helped to advance the careers of a number of moderate Republican politicians to state and national offices. Among the politicians whose careers she fostered are President George H. W. Bush, Senator John Heinz, and Pennsylvania governors Dick Thornburgh and Tom Ridge.
She worked with Democrats and Republicans on civil rights, women’s rights, and jobs in the Pittsburgh region. Known for her down-to-earth nature and sense of humor, Pittsburghers regularly encountered "Elsie" in her signature headband, as she was active as a philanthropist and civic leader in the city and region.
Hillman was born in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to Thomas Jones Hilliard and Marianna Talbott Hilliard. She was raised in the Fox Chapel and Hampton Township areas of Allegheny County before her family moved into the City of Pittsburgh. Hillman's mother served on the boards of non-profit organizations, volunteered to spot aircraft over Pittsburgh during WWII, and headed up the citywide effort to raise money to buy mobile kitchens and hospital equipment for war-bombed England. Elsie Hillman began her own volunteering by cleaning instruments for surgeries at Eye and Ear Hospital in Pittsburgh, selling War Bonds, and knitting socks for soldiers.
During her elementary and upper school years, Hillman attended the Ellis School in Pittsburgh and the Ethel Walker School in Connecticut. After she graduated from high school, Hillman went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. to study piano and voice. (Her grandmother, Catherine Hauk Talbott, founded the college, which now is part of Rider University.) By then, she had fallen in love with Henry Hillman, a U.S. Navy pilot whom she had met years earlier in Pittsburgh. They were wed in 1945.
The Hillmans lived in New York and Texas, returning to the City of Pittsburgh at the end of the war.
Hillman first ventured into politics as a young woman, campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower because she saw him as a war hero. She had already registered as a Republican—both because of family tradition and the party’s support for women, including the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (which the party supported in its platform until 1980).
After Ike’s successful campaigns, Hillman remained involved in the Republican party during the 1960s as a volunteer at the local level. Her work in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County caused her to see how few African American men or women were involved in her party, so she arranged to meet with the county party chairman to raise the issue. He suggested that she meet Wendell Freeland, an African American lawyer and Tuskegee Airman, to team-up to recruit more volunteers and candidates from the city’s African American community.
Hillman and Freeland did this, going on to organize neighborhoods across the City of Pittsburgh and becoming lifelong friends through political and civic work that spanned decades.
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Elsie Hillman
Elsie Hilliard Hillman (December 9, 1925 – August 4, 2015) was a Pittsburgh based philanthropist and a former Republican National Committeewoman. She was the wife of billionaire industrialist Henry Hillman. During her life, Hillman helped to advance the careers of a number of moderate Republican politicians to state and national offices. Among the politicians whose careers she fostered are President George H. W. Bush, Senator John Heinz, and Pennsylvania governors Dick Thornburgh and Tom Ridge.
She worked with Democrats and Republicans on civil rights, women’s rights, and jobs in the Pittsburgh region. Known for her down-to-earth nature and sense of humor, Pittsburghers regularly encountered "Elsie" in her signature headband, as she was active as a philanthropist and civic leader in the city and region.
Hillman was born in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to Thomas Jones Hilliard and Marianna Talbott Hilliard. She was raised in the Fox Chapel and Hampton Township areas of Allegheny County before her family moved into the City of Pittsburgh. Hillman's mother served on the boards of non-profit organizations, volunteered to spot aircraft over Pittsburgh during WWII, and headed up the citywide effort to raise money to buy mobile kitchens and hospital equipment for war-bombed England. Elsie Hillman began her own volunteering by cleaning instruments for surgeries at Eye and Ear Hospital in Pittsburgh, selling War Bonds, and knitting socks for soldiers.
During her elementary and upper school years, Hillman attended the Ellis School in Pittsburgh and the Ethel Walker School in Connecticut. After she graduated from high school, Hillman went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. to study piano and voice. (Her grandmother, Catherine Hauk Talbott, founded the college, which now is part of Rider University.) By then, she had fallen in love with Henry Hillman, a U.S. Navy pilot whom she had met years earlier in Pittsburgh. They were wed in 1945.
The Hillmans lived in New York and Texas, returning to the City of Pittsburgh at the end of the war.
Hillman first ventured into politics as a young woman, campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower because she saw him as a war hero. She had already registered as a Republican—both because of family tradition and the party’s support for women, including the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (which the party supported in its platform until 1980).
After Ike’s successful campaigns, Hillman remained involved in the Republican party during the 1960s as a volunteer at the local level. Her work in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County caused her to see how few African American men or women were involved in her party, so she arranged to meet with the county party chairman to raise the issue. He suggested that she meet Wendell Freeland, an African American lawyer and Tuskegee Airman, to team-up to recruit more volunteers and candidates from the city’s African American community.
Hillman and Freeland did this, going on to organize neighborhoods across the City of Pittsburgh and becoming lifelong friends through political and civic work that spanned decades.
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