Straus, Ellen Sulzberger, 1925-1955

Ellen Sulzberger Straus (March 11, 1925 – February 24, 1995) was an American businesswoman and philanthropist who founded the United States' first telephone help line. Ellen Sulzberger Straus was born to a Jewish family in Manhattan in 1925, the daughter of Louise Mayer Blumenthal and David Hays Sulzberger.[2][3] Her uncle was The New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger and her grandfather was the German-born merchant Cyrus Leopold Sulzberger. In 1945, she graduated with a B.A. from Smith College.[2] After school, she worked as the executive secretary of the New York League of Women Voters and later on the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission eventually becoming the assistant director of public information.[2][3] In 1949, she was a manager of the senate campaign of Governor Herbert H. Lehman.[2] In the 1950s, she began writing a column for McCall's magazine.[3] In 1963, she founded the United States' first telephone help line, a non-profit entitled Call for Action,