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In the 1946 edition of the Iris, the annual yearbook for what was then the Pennsylvania State College of Optometry (PSCO), a short synopsis was written about each senior in the graduating class.
For Georgianna Lorrayne Nottage, OD ‘46, it read: “In view of her lifelong belief in humanitarianism, Lorrayne was spirited to the profession of optometry. After one year of schooling at Simon Gratz High School, she completed her academic course at East Greenville High School. She fully applied herself to the task of successfully mastering the art and science of eye specialization. She is an ardent fan of sports and took an active part on the Signal Corps basketball team. Many moments of her spare time are taken by her enjoyment and appreciation of fine music. Sub-normal vision will be her specialty in her Philadelphia practice. We fully trust that through her sincere and vigorous efforts, her goal will be achieved.”
In recognition of March as “Women’s History Month” the National Women’s History Alliance has chosen the theme of “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations.” That certainly applies to Dr. Nottage.
Dr. Nottage not only accomplished her career goals but also paved the way for others as the first African-American to graduate from PSCO.
Born in 1925, Dr. Nottage was the daughter of the Rev. Whitfield and Captilda Nottage. As mentioned in the book “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories,” Dr. Nottage was one of 14 children born to the couple.
The Rev. Nottage was born in 1883 in Targum Bay, Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, where he met and married Captilda Gardiner. The growing family emigrated to New York, then eventually moved to Philadelphia in 1925, the year their daughter Georgianna Lorrayne Nottage was born.
The Rev. Nottage founded a mission that he operated for many years on South Street before he established the Ebenezer Community Tabernacle at 19th Street and Susquehanna Avenue. The Nottages also acquired a 200-acre farm in Upper Salford Township, Montgomery County, where they took in underprivileged African-American children and raised tomatoes they sold to the Campbell Soup Company.
Captilda Nottage ran a grocery store, an employment agency, and a real estate company. She specialized in helping newly arrived African-American workers from the south during the Great Migration.
After graduating from PSCO in 1945, Dr. Nottage became a licensed optometrist, and in 1947 established her own practice at 21st and Diamond streets in North Philadelphia. In her free time, Dr. Nottage worked as a volunteer at the Christian Mission Center, founded by her father. She was a member of the Pennsylvania Optometric Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the NAACP.
Dr. Nottage lived in Ambler, Pennsylvania, for a time before moving to Germantown, Pennsylvania. She married Raymond Lane and the couple had three children, Raymond C. Lane, Captilda Hicks and Marilla Lane. Unfortunately, she died on Dec. 10, 1986, at the age of 61. Her father died the week before her at 103-years-old.
Dr. Nottage wasn’t the only trailblazer in her family. Her sister Grayce Nottage-Nicholas was a winner of the Miss Sepia beauty pageant in Atlantic City who would later become a Philadelphia Police office in the 1950s. She also became the first African-American detective for the department.
Another sister C. Delores Tucker, was a politician and civil rights activist, participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1971, Tucker became the first African-American Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, appointed by Gov. Milton Schapp. She served in that role until 1977.
Women In Optometry (WIO), an online publication and community that focuses on professional and personal experiences of women in profession of optometry, reported in January 2024 that the percentage of women ODs in the U.S. increased 1 percent from 2022 to 2023. However, while the U.S. optometric workforce in 2022 was nearly 43,000, women comprised just 48.6 percent of practicing optometrists, according to Data USA, a free website that allows users to explore, analyze and visualize U.S. government data.
Currently, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry's (PCO) student body is 76 percent female. In Dr. Nottage’s Class of 1946, there were 32 students, nine of which were female, for 28 percent.
