Was one of the first African-American female pharmacists in the United States.
She was born in Stringtown,a small village near Berryville,in Clark County,Virginia,the oldest of the four children of Henry H.Phillips & Eliza T.(Carr) Phillips.Her parents were sharecroppers.When she was six Ella
was sent to live with her paternal grand mama in Berryville,to attend grade school.An outstanding student,she graduated at the top of her grade school class,and won several major scholarships to what was then the Storer Normal School (later,Storer College),in nearby Harper Ferry,West Virginia,Ella entered Storer at the age of 12.
Ella withdrew from the teacher training program at Storer in order to marry Charles Myers,was a classmate there. They moved to Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.After their only child Virginia,died of whopping cough at the age of three,they divorced.
In Pittsburgh Ella began working in a local pharmacy as a bookkeeper,
and her job sparked in her an interest in becoming a pharmacist.Despite
the challenges she faced both as a woman and as an African American,
she gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 1914.Ella completed her degree in pharmaceutical chemistry (Ph.C.) in 1916,becoming the first African American to graduate from Pitt's pharmacy program.In the same year,Ella passed the state examination becoming the first African American woman pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the first African American women pharmacists in the country.
Ella initially worked as an assistant pharmacist for the Mendelsson Drug
Company,owned by two classmates from the University of Pittsburgh.
she later went on to own and operate a drugstore at the General Hospotial in Braddock,Pennsylvania.In 1918 she moved back to Pittsburgh where she again established her own business,Myers Pharmacy.
In 1920,she married William Wyatt Stewart,a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh,and a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh and a fellow alumnus
of the Pitt Pharmacy program.The couple settled in Youngstown, Ohio,
where,Ella was hired as a pharmacist at at the Youngstown City Hospital.After some time,she and her husband moved to Detriot,where
they stayed only briefly;in 1922,they decided to move to Toledo,Ohio to
open their pharmacy.
Ella & William opened Stewarts' Pharmacy,located at the corner of Indiana & Park Avenues (566 Indiana Avenue),in Toledo,in July 1922,and operated it until 1945,when they sold the business.Located in
Toledo's Pinewood district,where some two thirds of the city's African American lived by the end of the 1920s,the pharmacy became a popular
neighborhood gathering place.The Stewarts,who owned the building and lived in the spacious eight rooms above the pharmacy,often vistors from out of town,including luminaries such as Marian Anderson,Mary McLeod Bethune,and W.E.B.Du Bois.
By the 1930s Ella became a leading member of community groups in Toledo,including the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Enterprise Charity Club,a social-service organization run by African-American women.From 1944-1948 she served as president of the Ohio Association of Colored Women;and from 1948-1952,as president of the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs(NACWC).As leader of the NACWC,Ella spoke out against segregation,discrimination,and racist stereotypes.
In 1961 she became an inaugural member of the Toledo Board of Community Realtions,which worked to improve race relations in the city,and to ensure enforcement of civil rights legislation.
Ella civic activities ecentually took on an international dimension: In 1952 she was appointed as an American delegate to the International Conference of Women of the World,held in Athens Greece.She subsequently spent time during the 1950s touring as a goodwill ambassador the United States;in 1954 on one such U.S. State Department tour took her to several nations in Southeast Asia.In 1963
she was appointed to the United States commission of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ella spent the rest of her life in Toledo,remaining as avolunteer and philanthropist.Her husband died in 1976 at 86,and she moved into a retirement home a few years later,in 1980.
was sent to live with her paternal grand mama in Berryville,to attend grade school.An outstanding student,she graduated at the top of her grade school class,and won several major scholarships to what was then the Storer Normal School (later,Storer College),in nearby Harper Ferry,West Virginia,Ella entered Storer at the age of 12.
Ella withdrew from the teacher training program at Storer in order to marry Charles Myers,was a classmate there. They moved to Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.After their only child Virginia,died of whopping cough at the age of three,they divorced.
In Pittsburgh Ella began working in a local pharmacy as a bookkeeper,
and her job sparked in her an interest in becoming a pharmacist.Despite
the challenges she faced both as a woman and as an African American,
she gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 1914.Ella completed her degree in pharmaceutical chemistry (Ph.C.) in 1916,becoming the first African American to graduate from Pitt's pharmacy program.In the same year,Ella passed the state examination becoming the first African American woman pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the first African American women pharmacists in the country.
Ella initially worked as an assistant pharmacist for the Mendelsson Drug
Company,owned by two classmates from the University of Pittsburgh.
she later went on to own and operate a drugstore at the General Hospotial in Braddock,Pennsylvania.In 1918 she moved back to Pittsburgh where she again established her own business,Myers Pharmacy.
In 1920,she married William Wyatt Stewart,a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh,and a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh and a fellow alumnus
of the Pitt Pharmacy program.The couple settled in Youngstown, Ohio,
where,Ella was hired as a pharmacist at at the Youngstown City Hospital.After some time,she and her husband moved to Detriot,where
they stayed only briefly;in 1922,they decided to move to Toledo,Ohio to
open their pharmacy.
Ella & William opened Stewarts' Pharmacy,located at the corner of Indiana & Park Avenues (566 Indiana Avenue),in Toledo,in July 1922,and operated it until 1945,when they sold the business.Located in
Toledo's Pinewood district,where some two thirds of the city's African American lived by the end of the 1920s,the pharmacy became a popular
neighborhood gathering place.The Stewarts,who owned the building and lived in the spacious eight rooms above the pharmacy,often vistors from out of town,including luminaries such as Marian Anderson,Mary McLeod Bethune,and W.E.B.Du Bois.
By the 1930s Ella became a leading member of community groups in Toledo,including the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Enterprise Charity Club,a social-service organization run by African-American women.From 1944-1948 she served as president of the Ohio Association of Colored Women;and from 1948-1952,as president of the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs(NACWC).As leader of the NACWC,Ella spoke out against segregation,discrimination,and racist stereotypes.
In 1961 she became an inaugural member of the Toledo Board of Community Realtions,which worked to improve race relations in the city,and to ensure enforcement of civil rights legislation.
Ella civic activities ecentually took on an international dimension: In 1952 she was appointed as an American delegate to the International Conference of Women of the World,held in Athens Greece.She subsequently spent time during the 1950s touring as a goodwill ambassador the United States;in 1954 on one such U.S. State Department tour took her to several nations in Southeast Asia.In 1963
she was appointed to the United States commission of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ella spent the rest of her life in Toledo,remaining as avolunteer and philanthropist.Her husband died in 1976 at 86,and she moved into a retirement home a few years later,in 1980.
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