Social Security Death Index
Name: Erma L. Mazingo
SSN: 533-12-2532
Last Residence: 55113 Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota
Born: 2 Sep 1920
Died: 17 Jun 2006
State (Year) SSN issued: Washington (Before 1951 )

http://obits.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/obit.cgi?Surname=mazingo
MAZINGO, Erma L; ; ; Minneapolis S-T (MN); 2006-6-19; jblind
MAZINGO, Erma L (BROWN); ; ; Minneapolis S-T (MN); 2006-6-20; jblind
MAZINGO, Erma L (BROWN); ; ; Minneapolis S-T (MN); 2006-6-22; jblind

Ben Cohen, Star Tribune 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488 (612) 673-4000
Last update: June 21, 2006 � 10:26 PM
Erma Mazingo was leader in insurance and civil rights. The former head of the St. Paul NAACP was known for her leadership, organizing ability and 'love for people.'

Erma Mazingo, a leader in the insurance industry and the black community, thrived on working and socializing with people, right up to the time of her unexpected death last Saturday at her home in Roseville.

She was an insurance agency executive and a longtime member of the St. Paul NAACP's executive board. After leaving the insurance business, she worked in part-time sales. She didn't need the money, said her daughter, Sherrie Mazingo, a University of Minnesota journalism professor who has also written for the Star Tribune.

"It allowed her to meet and interact with other people," said her daughter. "She had a natural love for people."

Mazingo served as St. Paul NAACP president in the 1960s and '70s.

"Erma was very good at organizing, getting people involved and getting the very best out of them," said Clarence Harris, a business executive and St. Paul community leader.

When 70 black students took over the University of Minnesota's administration building in January 1969, Mazingo led the local NAACP in condemning the takeover as irresponsible, but added support for the principles involved in the protest.

"She came under a lot of criticism for not supporting the takeover," her daughter said. "She felt the students were being recklessly disobedient instead of reasonably disobedient."

After graduating from high school in Spokane, Wash., Mazingo attended Gonzaga University there and moved to St. Paul in the 1950s to begin work at the Mutual Service Insurance Co. in St. Paul. She became an insurance underwriter and spent most of her career with the Northern States Agency of St. Paul, rising to public relations director.

"She knew the insurance business backwards and forwards," said Bill Lyons of Omaha. "When she went to insurance conventions, she generated more business," he said.

In 1972, Mazingo was elected Woman of the Year of the Minneapolis Chapter of the American Business Women's Association. In 1975 she became the first woman to be elected to the eight-member executive board of the Minnesota Underwriters Association.

Mazingo retired from the insurance industry in the mid-1990s. Her husband, Tony, died in 1988.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her son, Peter, of Roseville; sisters Doris Aaron of Bay Point, Calif., and Peggy Parker of Kent, Wash.; a brother, Dewey Brown of Seattle, and two grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Pilgrim Baptist Church, 732 W. Central Av., St. Paul. Visitation will be held there at 10 a.m. Friday, and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Roseville Memorial Chapel, 2245 N. Hamline Av., Roseville.