Jane Stewart

Anna Jane Stewart (July 2, 1917 – September 7, 1990), also called Jane Stewart Mapes in the press, was an American public relations executive. She was among the first female executives in her field. She was vice president and then president of Group Attitudes Corporation, a subsidiary of Hill and Knowlton in 1961. She was named by Printers' Ink in 1966 as one of America's 40 top women in executive positions in communications and marketing. Background Anna Jane Stewart was born in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania on July 2, 1917. According to interviewee Barbara Walkley, with whom Jane Stewart had shared a workplace, Stewart was "not very tall; she had medium blonde or sandy brown hair, very nice eyes, a small to medium build" . . . "a presence; you had to look twice." Aside from the names of her family members, mother, Froan (Seibert) Stewart; father, Lawrence R. Stewart; and sister, Ruth, not much is known about her childhood. At some point her family moved to Floral Park, New York. Stewart attended Randolph Macon—a women's college in Lynchburg, Virginia—then transferred to Ohio Wesleyan University to study history and education, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1939. During this time, she was involved in history and sociology clubs in addition to the Y.W.C.A and being a member of a sorority. She gave back to her school through monetary contributions and served on the board of directors during the mid 1960s. She also served on the public relations committees of many organizations including the New York State Salvation Army and the American Foundation for Religion and Psychiatry.