Cornelia Ann Netter was born into this life during the depression the offspring of two strong, intelligent, successful parents. Her parents helped create the warm, loving, generous woman that most came to know over the 77 years she lived. During the last week of her life, she had a new set of doctors and nurses caring for her, and when she died, they were heartbroken. They wanted to get to know her as we all did.
She was the eldest of five children, three boys and two girls. As the eldest, she took on the role of parent many times, as most first born do. She always tried to look out for her siblings. As a teenager, she was bored with school and worked to graduate early. During those days she designed furs for a furrier. Who knows, you might be wearing a coat based upon one of her designs.
But her days as a fur designer didn't last; it wasn't challenging enough, so off to college she went. It seemed natural to her to choose medicine, but back in the 50's, guidance counselors worked to dissuade women from entering this profession. Every one of her bio and chem professors said, “You should give up the idea of medicine. You’re too pretty to be a doctor. You'll just waste the training, getting married and having children.” Even with her mother as a physician, doctors and professors had the nerve to say this. Mom eventually gave in and studied politics.
She found politics to give her the challenge she searched for, working for Senator Javits, then Governor Rockefeller, and finally Governor Carey. She was probably the only person who ever admitted to being responsible for getting Nixon elected. She had been in charge of the ethic vote in New York. She was also responsible for keeping the Nixon dirty tricks team out of NY.
When she was looking for an apartment in the 60's, she found she was being rejected because she was a single woman, never mind the fact that she was a single mother. They had all kinds of excuses as to why, but bottom line, she was a single woman. That made her angry, so she went right back to her office, picked up the phone, and arranged to see the Attorney General. She sat there explaining it to him and pushed him to make it illegal to discriminate against a person on the basis of their sex. New York State became the first state to make it against the law to discriminate against a person based on sex. Mom did that. She was right there on the front lines of women's equality with Betty Freidan and Shirley Chisolm. She was one of the founding members of the Manhattan Women's Political Caucus.
In 1974, she ran for office for the NY State Assembly. She ran on the Republican ticket and lost that year, but compared to all the other Republicans, she fared well. Everyone said had she not been a Republican, she'd have won. Back then it was really hard for people in all good conscience in NY to pull the lever for a Republican. Remember, that was during Watergate.
When her daughter graduated college, she left politics, took a few years off, and then went into real estate. During the later 70's, she took the EST Training, started participating in the organization, and eventually wound up as a course manager for the Communication Workshop.
Later she started her own firm selling real estate. She joined the Greenwich Village Chamber of Commerce, eventually becoming the president. She became a leading member of the Real Estate Board of New York. Throughout her life she followed politics intently and stayed involved in everything she did. There were no half-hearted attempts with her. It was always all or nothing.
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