Berger-Marks Legacy
The Berger-Marks Foundation was established in 1997 to honor the memory of Edna Berger, the first woman lead organizer for The Newspaper Guild-CWA, and her husband, the legendary Tin Pan Alley song-writer Gerald Marks who bequeathed his fortune to set up the Foundation.
Formerly a clerical worker at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Click magazine, Berger rose through the ranks of The Newspaper Guild to become the first woman organizer on the international staff. Berger was a feisty, remarkable woman and first-rate union organizer who paved the way for other women in the labor movement.
When Berger died in 1996, Louise Walsh, a reporter who had evolved into a union activist and educator herself, set up a scholarship fund in Berger’s name. Walsh invited four other pioneering women unionists, including current Foundation Trustees Linda Foley, Carolyn Jacobson, and Kitty Peddicord, to serve on the board. They launched the fund with several thousand dollars in donations from individuals and the Guild.
Touched and impressed by the tribute to his wife, Berger’s widower Gerald Mark left three-quarters of his estate to establish the Berger-Marks Foundation when he died in 1997. Royalties from Marks’ prolific Tin Pan Alley catalogue, including his most famous song, “All of Me,” have provided funding for the Foundation ever since. (Hence, the musical note in our logo.) The Foundation sold Marks’ song catalog to Sony and Round Hill Music and is now spending down the proceeds.
Meet Edna Berger
“God blessed thousands of Guild members by giving us Edna Berger. He blessed the publishers by making only one Edna Berger.” So wrote Harry S. Culver, former chair of The Newspaper Guild, on the occasion of Edna Berger’s 80th birthday in 1995. For unionists whose lives Edna touched, she embodied their vision of a vibrant, robust and expansive labor movement. Tall and brash, Edna charmed those who knew her with a ferocious love for working people paired with a knack for creative obscenity. Stories from friends and colleagues tell of a woman who was generous to a fault, giving of her money, time, and, even once, the winter coat off her back to the workers and younger activists she mentored.
She was unafraid of the newspaper publishers, intolerant of nonsense at the bargaining table, and quick to speak up on behalf of the workers. “I remember one occasion,” wrote Culver, “when she talked a cop out of hauling a Guild picket off to jail. She simply cussed out the cop, as only Edna could, and told him he ought to be ashamed.”
Her husband, Gerald Marks, was an equally vivid personality, squiring Edna around New York with a mixture of theatricality, panache, and devotion. “This whole foundation is a love story,” said Foundation Chair Louise Walsh, explaining that it was partly the mutual love that Gerald and the Newspaper Guild women activists had for Edna that inspired the Foundation’s creation.
It is “the unconditional love [Edna and Gerald] gave their friends of all ages” that continues to inspire the Foundation to give the Edna Award and Awards of Distinction. This investment in young women activists, many of them labor activists, represents one way in which the Foundation is carrying Edna’s legacy forward.
Follow Us