Charlesetta Darrett Fishman

June 05, 1933 - September 30, 2010

Charlesetta Darrett Fishman was born June 5, 1933 in Houston, Texas, to Eula Mae Glenn and Samuel Thomas Darrett. In 1938 Charlesetta and her family relocated to San Francisco where she lived until her early adult life.

In June of 1950, Charlesetta graduated Notre Dame de Namur High School, with the distinction of being the first Negro female graduate. This event was so significant that it was included in the daily column of the famous Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Herb Caen.

Charlesetta became a resident of Palo Alto in 1962, after her mother Eula, a Surgical Podiatrist, relocated to attend Stanford University to matriculate as a General Electric Fellow in Education.

In her long career as an Executive Administrator and Assistant, Charlesetta considered it an honor to work for such organizations as the Stanford School of Medicine, The City of Palo Alto and former Mayor Byron Sher, Jewish Family Services, Ravenswood School District, Congregation Beth Am, and most recently after retirement, as a founding board member of the Ravenswood Family Health Center. Throughout her life, Charlesetta carried on a tradition of service and advocacy for the under represented members of the community of East Palo Alto in which she lived and worked. She, like her mother, as an African-American woman in medicine and education, broke racial and sexist barriers to achieve a better quality of life for herself and others.

Charlesetta was a charming woman, humorous, gracious and elegant. She loved to travel, and thoroughly enjoyed her life. It’s not surprising that over the past decades she cultivated an extensive network of friends and family from all walks of life, all over the world.

Charlesetta is survived by her faithful daughters Juanita Duncan-Bracy and Eve Fishman, her son-in-law James Bracy, her three amazing grandchildren – Israel, Alicia, and James, four great-grandchildren – Alex, Gabrielle, BJ & Derrick, her brother Jay Price and sister Marlowe Felender and large adopted family –Laurie, Rader, Eldon, Lee, Kate, Joe, Jake, Jeremy, Tessa, and Ernesto. She loved them all dearly. She will be missed and forever remembered.