100 years and counting her accomplishments
By Monica Deady / CNC Staff Writer

Daily News Tribune, MA
Sept 7 2004

WATERTOWN — After just celebrating her 100th birthday, Norma Karaian
doesn’t talk much anymore. But she doesn’t have to. All that she has
accomplished since she was born on Sept. 6, 1904, stands for itself.

Dressed in a yellow jacket and skirt, sitting regally in a living room
chair, Karaian adds a few thoughts to the story of her life that her
daughter, Marilyn Hollisian, tells.

“I am very happy,” Karaian said, repeatedly kissing Hollisian on the
cheek as she spoke.

Hollisian told the story of a woman who was born in Providence,
R.I., the youngest of five children, who was going to be a teacher,
but instead decided to become a lawyer, the first female Armenian
lawyer in Massachusetts.

“She knew right from the beginning that that’s what she wanted to do,”
said Hollisian, acting principal of the Lowell School.

In 1925, Karaian graduated from Boston University Law School at age
20, as one of 12 women and 200 men. She waited until she was 21 to
take the bar exam, Hollisian said.

By 1927, she had secured a job as a real estate attorney and often
did freelance legal work or pro bono work for friends.

Karaian was a mother to three children, and was widowed when her
husband, Leo, died in 1947, 10 years after they were married, but
Hollisian said her mother was always on top of things, never allowing
them to watch television, making sure they did their homework and
taking them on vacations in the summer in a 1951 Chevrolet stick shift.

She remembers her mother taking public transportation to work in
downtown Boston every day, saying it makes her think her mother is
“physically strong.” Hollisian said her mom attributes her long
life to what she calls “good family stock” and eating healthy food,
as well as a flexible and adaptable attitude.

“She just doesn’t let things bother her,” Hollisian said.

Karaian worked as the head of real estate, her specialty, at the
Boston firm Gaston Snow, where she worked until they went bankrupt.
She was 88, Hollisian said, when she stopped working.

George Dallas, who worked with Karaian at the firm, said he remembers
her telling stories about how her mother and brother escaped from
Armenia during the genocide, and how she always took an interest in
teaching the young lawyers who cycled through the office.

“I think the wealth of her life experience and her gumption are just
wonderful examples, because I’m sure when she started out practices and
the discrimination against women lawyers and women in the workplace was
formidable and she rose about all that, found her niche and practiced
law,” Dallas said.

As Hollisian shows all of her mother’s awards, Karaian reads from
a small book from the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers,
of which she was president from 1954 to 1955.

“She reads without glasses,” Hollisian whispered, shaking her head
in marvel.

Karaian has won several awards and honors in her lifetime, including
an honor from the Armenian Law Society, recognition from the Boston Bar
Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association and a 1993-94 Leading
Women’s Award from the Patriots Trails Council of the Girls Scouts.

In addition, the Watertown Book Award is given annually by Jelalian
family in Karaian’s name to a graduating Watertown high school Armenian
student who is interested in law.

Hollisian said she still takes her mother to have her nails and
hair done.

“She was always impeccably dressed and impeccable about herself,”
Hollisian said. “She was a real pioneer. Before her time. A role
model for so many different women.”

Monica Deady can be reached at mdeady@cnc.com.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress