14 Facts About Elsie Hillman

Elsie Hilliard Hillman was a Pittsburgh based philanthropist and a former Republican National Committeewoman.

Elsie Hillman was the wife of billionaire industrialist Henry Hillman.

Elsie Hillman worked with Democrats and Republicans on civil rights, women's rights, and jobs in the Pittsburgh region.

Elsie Hillman was born in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to Thomas Jones Hilliard and Marianna Talbott Hilliard.

Elsie Hillman was raised in the Fox Chapel and Hampton Township areas of Allegheny County before her family moved into the City of Pittsburgh.

Elsie 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.

Elsie Hillman 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.

Elsie Hillman volunteered for the board of directors of several traditionally African American organizations, including the Hill House Association, and began to speak publicly for civil rights.

Elsie Hillman witnessed the poor treatment of African American Republican delegates by some of those who opposed Scranton.

Elsie Hillman worked to elect Senator Hugh Scott, who had led the Republican National Committee and would rise to the position of Senate Minority Leader.

Elsie Hillman was known as a supporter of abortion rights.

Elsie Hillman was chair of the Elsie H Hillman Foundation, a trustee of the Hillman Family Foundations, co-chair of the UPCI and UPMC CancerCenter Council, and served as a board member of WQED, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Hill House Association.

Elsie Hillman died of heart failure on August 4,2015, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.