Alberta J. Meyer portrait. “As I Recall” Oral History Project Records (C4280)
Alberta Janette Meyer, 1914-2018
Alberta J. Meyer was born in Ashdown, Arkansas, on August 14, 1914. Meyer spent her early life in southwestern Arkansas. After graduating high school, Meyer briefly enrolled at Dodd College in Shreveport, Louisiana, before returning home due to her father's illness.
In 1934, her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Upon the advice of her uncle, Meyer enrolled in a comptometer course and eventually took a job at the St. Louis office of the Unemployment Compensation Commission in the mid-1930s. In 1940, she transferred to a position at the Unemployment Compensation Commission's central office in Jefferson City.
Inspired by prominent women such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Meyer took an active role in the Jefferson City branch of the Business and Professional Women's Foundation. In the 1960s, Meyer was appointed by Governor John Dalton to serve as the first permanent chair of the Missouri State Commission on the Status of Women.
Alberta J. Meyer passed away on July 3, 2018. For more information on the life of Alberta J. Meyer see the Missouri Commission on the Status of Women Papers (C3903) and the recently donated Alberta J. Meyer Papers (CA6518). In this interview from 2006, Meyer talks with SHSMO’s director Dr. Gary Kremer, Kyle Felling, and Lisa Weingarth about her life, career, and activism for women's rights.
The opinions expressed in this audio recording are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and values of the State Historical Society of Missouri.