ATLANTA -- Jean Childs Young, 61, a former educator and aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who was the wife of former U.N. ambassador, Atlanta mayor and Georgia congressman Andrew Young (D), died of liver cancer Sept. 16 at an Atlanta hospital.
Mrs. Young was an educator, lecturer and rights activist with a longtime commitment to social issues, particularly those related to women and children. She was appointed chairwoman of the U.S. National Commission of the International Year of the Child by President Carter in 1978 and traveled extensively for the United Nations, leading tours to Egypt, Zimbabwe and the Soviet Union during her husband's tenure as U.N. ambassador.
She was a native of Marion, Ala., attended Manchester College in Indiana and received her master's degree in education from Queens College in New York.
Like her husband, who was a top lieutenant in civil rights movement led by King, Mrs. Young played a role in several major demonstrations of the era. She participated in the 1963 march on Washington, the 1965 march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala., the 1966 march in Mississippi and the 1968 Poor People's Campaign.
After teaching school in Hartford, Thomasville, Ga., and Atlanta, Mrs. Young became a coordinator of elementary and preschool programs with the Atlanta public schools. She worked with IBM Educational Systems in the development of a multimedia computer program called "The Illuminated Books and Manuscripts."
During her husband's two terms as Atlanta mayor, Mrs. Young founded the Mayor's Task Force on Public Education, which helped to increase scholarships to city public schools from $3 million to $20 million.
Mrs. Young was given the NAACP's Distinguished Leadership Award in 1989 and the 1993 YWCA Woman of Achievement Award.
In addition to her husband, survivors include four children, including daughters Andrea I. Young and Paula Young Shelton, both of Washington; her mother, two sisters; two brothers; and six grandchildren.
NELLIE E. ROHMER
Bureau of Engraving Employee
Nellie E. Rohmer, 91, an examiner at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1919 until she retired in 1960, died of pneumonia Sept. 15 at the Manor Care nursing home in Wheaton.
Mrs. Rohmer was born in Haymarket. She lived in Washington from the time she was 16 until 1988, when she moved to the nursing home.
Her husband, Albert E. Rohmer, died in 1979, and her daughter, Madeline A. Murray, died in 1984. Survivors include two brothers, Luther Lambert of Haymarket and Chris Lambert of Florida; five grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.
