Phoebe Snow was a fictional advertising character for the Delaware, Lakawana and Western Railroad. The “Phoebe Snow” rail line ran from Buffalo to Hoboken through Summit. The character Phoebe Snow was dressed in white, symbolizing the lack of soot from the clean-burning coal used by the rail line, which assured passengers that their clothes wouldn’t be soiled with soot during the voyage.
The late singer, Pheobe Ann Laub, who grew up in New Jersey, later adopted the name of this fictional character as her stage name.
Source: Summit Historical Society; Wikipedia
Lawton Johnson
Lawton Johnson faced many challenges even at a young age. When he was three, his mother contracted polio and she never walked again. He met his father for the first time when he was 12 years old, and only saw him twice in his life. After graduating from the Summit public school system, he stayed in Summit to teach, and became the Summit School District’s longest tenured faculty member, starting in 1956 and retiring in 2007, a 52-year teaching career. In 2004, the School District named the Summit Middle School after him in his honor. He passed away in 2009.