Hazel Kuser

AKA:
The Radium Girls
Birth Name:
Hazel May Vincent
Birth Date:
August 5, 1899
Birth Place:
Orange, New Jersey
Death Date:
December 9, 1924
Place of Death:
76 2nd Street, Newark, New Jersey
Age:
25
Cause of Death:
Radium poisoning
Cemetery Name:
Rosedale Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
The Odd and the Interesting
Hazel May Vincent Kuser was born on August 5, 1899, in Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. At the age of 16, she began working at the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey, where she painted luminous watch dials using radium-based paint. This hazardous work led to her developing radium poisoning, a condition that caused severe health issues and contributed to her early death. She married Theodore C. Kuser, and they had one child together. Hazel passed away on December 9, 1924, at the age of 25, and was laid to rest at Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey. Her life and tragic death became part of the broader narrative of the Radium Girls, a group of 50+ female factory workers who suffered from radium poisoning due to unsafe working conditions.

Not So Fun Facts

The Radium Girls ingested radioactive radium through the special paint formula they used to paint the dials on clocks, watches, aircraft instruments and other applications. By using a technique known as “lip – dip – paint” they would put the brush on their lips after each application to tighten the brush hairs, ingesting the paint hundreds of times a day for years. In a very short period of time, dial painters began experiencing a range of symptoms, including tooth loss, jaw necrosis and severe bone pain, eventually becoming bedridden and passing away from radiation poisoning.

Ironically, the inventor of radium dial paint, Dr Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, died in November 1928, becoming the 16th known victim of poisoning by radium dial paint. He had gotten sick from radium in his hands, not the jaw, but the circumstances of his death helped the Radium Girls in court.

Many of radium girls died within 2-5 years of exposure, in their early-mid twenties, leaving parents, siblings, husbands and children behind–and sometimes decimating entire families.

While a few dial painters received substantial settlements, generally such suits and claims resulted in much smaller compensations. Three of the earliest suits against the USRC were brought by Marguerite Carlough, the family of her sister Sarah Maillefer, and the family of Hazel Kuser. Carlough’s heirs received $9,000. The family of Hazel Kuser received $1,000 and Sarah Maillefer’s survivors received $3,000, each estate signing releases protecting the company from further litigation.

The Radium Girls’ plight brought attention to the dangers of radiation exposure in the workplace, leading to legal battles and eventually, significant changes in labor safety. Their case helped establish occupational safety standards and ultimately led to the formation of OSHA. 

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Rosedale Cemetery

408 Orange Road

Montclair, New Jersey, 07042

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey
Map of Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey

Grave Location:

Kuser Family Plot, Section Q, Lot 78, Grave 2

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery drive to the left slightly past the office. Continue to the back border of the cemetery towards the maintenance building. Look for the bridge linking the new cemetery to the old cemetery. Take the short road to the left of the bridge to the end of the road. Park and walk to your left to the 2 large rhododendrons on the road to the right. The simple, flat shared memorial for Radium Girl Hazel May Kuser is right on the road.

Grave Location GPS

40.787043364524706, -74.22367935848835

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Read More About Hazel Kuser:

Videos Featuring Hazel Kuser:
The Story of the Radium Girls
The Disturbing Fate of the Radium Girls
Who Were The Radium Girls?
The Radium Dial Painters
The Terrifying Story Of The Radium Girls
The Tragic Story of The Radium Girls | Grace Fryer
Kate Moore: The Radium Girls

See More:

Amelia Maggia

popular name: Amelia Maggia

date_of_death: September 12, 1922

age: 25

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Amelia ‘Mollie’ Maggia was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Mollie was an exceptional dial-painter – but paid the price. She was the first dial-painter to die in September 1922. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. Amelia worked in the factory for almost a decade and was known to be a diligent employee. Amelia had initially gone to the doctor complaining of a toothache and got an extraction. However, the ache in her jaw continued. During a routine exam, when the doctor gently probed here jaw, her jawbone literally fell out of her mouth into his hands. Upon closer examination he found extensive deterioration of her lower jaw bone and tissue damage from the radiation. Most of her jaw was removed and she developed severe anemia and lesions with massive infections. Amelia passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 25 when the radiation caused a jugular vein to rupture and she bled to death in front of her family. Her death was wrongly attributed to syphilis.

Quinta Maggia McDonald

popular name: Quinta Maggia McDonald

date_of_death: December 7, 1929

age: 29

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Quinta Maggia McDonald was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Quinta was recruited to work at the United States Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey as a dial-painter. Like her sisters she would end up paying the price. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. After Amelia's death, Quinta initially went to the doctor complaining of dental pain where her teeth began to just drop out of her mouth. Unlike her sister before her, she received a diagnoses of radium poisoning and was told there was no cure. Sometime later she noticed pain in her ankles, legs and hips and was put into plaster casts to keep her immobile in the chance this might bring some relieve. Upon her final hospitalization the doctors noticed a large sarcoma on her leg - the kind of bone tumor that killed a fellow Radium Girl a year before. She eventually lapsed into a coma and died at the age of 29 leaving behind two young children.

William Duggan

popular name: William Duggan

date_of_death: December 22, 1950

age: 51

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Even as a young boy, all William "Billy" Duggan ever wanted to do is join the circus. At age 12 he ran away from home to join the Sparks Circus where among his other duties, he was tasked with feeding the elephants. He quickly feel in love with these magnificent beasts and spent nearly 40 years working for one circus after another. In 1934, Mr. Duggan created the Duggan Brothers Circus, which toured for about a year. In 1950, he purchased the Pan American Animal Exhibit and began planning to make it into a three-ring circus that he named the Hagen-Wallace Circus. But of all the animals in his new circus, a young elephant by the name of Nancy was by far his favorite. Unfortunately Billy took ill and never saw the first performance of his new circus when he died suddenly. In his honor, Duggan’s son arranged for this life-size replica of Nancy, Duggan’s beloved baby elephant, to be carved from Tate, Georgia white marble and placed on his father’s grave. The cost of the sculpture was said to be nearly $10,000 (that's $131,000 in today's money).

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