Fanney Neyman Litvin
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1900-1991
Butte, Montana
In November 1921, the Anaconda Standard published an article on an extraordinary “Butte Girl,” 20-year-old Fanney Neyman who had petitioned the Montana Supreme Court to sit for the state bar examination in Helena the following month. In the piece, she downplayed her work ethic and solemnity, stating “It took a lot of study and hard work—a pretty constant application—but don’t make anyone believe that I made a sacrifice of all my fun just to burn the midnight oil...”
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Her childhood and adolescence were marked by turbulence and tragedy. Her family of seven changed residences on a nearly annual basis and her Russian immigrant mother died of eclampsia after delivering a stillborn son when Fanney was only thirteen. Five years later, her 56-year-old father, David Neyman, who had emigrated from Poland to Chicago in 1880 and operated secondhand stores and a variety of men’s clothing stores, died of gangrene from leg injuries. (A 16-year-old physician’s son driving a car on Utah Street, ran over a dog and swerved onto the sidewalk, striking Neyman.)
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But Fanney persisted through these adversities graduating from Butte High School at the age of 15, attending Butte Business College, studying law at the Silver Bow Law School, and worked as a stenographer for attorney James E. Murray, later a US Senator. Apparently, her law studies were prompted by her belief that “Every woman should know a little law—enough to study problems of politics and government and to vote intelligently, while the woman who has a thorough law training should not neglect the bigger opportunities which are open to her as well as to man.” In 1925, she made good on her vow to seek “bigger opportunities” moving to Washington, DC where, only two years later, was hired as the FCC’s first female staff attorney. She also graduated from the George Washington School of Law after she was a member of the District of Columbia bar.
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Fanny Neyman at 32
Courier News
Plainfield, NJ
In 1938, she married Russian-born Philip Litvin, seven years her junior, who held both law and medical school degrees and was also a member of the Washington, DC bar. Following his WWII service, he worked as an associate professor of Neurology at Georgetown University and at the District of Columbia Commission on Mental Health.
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On August 20th, 1951, vacationing at radio and television magnate Ed Craney’s ranch near Paradise, Litvin was canoeing in the Clark Fork with Craney and a Craney employee, when the watercraft flipped “end-for-end, throwing the three men into the raging water...Litvin lost his hold, Craney grabbed him with one hand, then lost his hand...Mrs. Litvin and Mrs. Craney watched from a car on the highway.” Litvin’s body was recovered a few days later.
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At the end of August, the Plainsman newspaper published a notice of appreciation from “Mrs. Philip Litvin [who] wishes to convey to the people of this community her deep appreciation for their sympathy and kindness during the recent search for her beloved husband...[and] to thank the Sheriff...for his tireless and selfless efforts in this behalf and to pay tribute to his extreme devotion to public duty as well as his great kindness in the performance thereof.”
Fanney Neyman Litvin at 44
Broadcasting Mgazine
January 31, 1944
​https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1944/1944-01-31-BC.pdf
Fanney did not lack for solace, perhaps, as two of her brothers, both renowned dentists, had relocated to the Washington, DC area prior to WWII. She was a long-time member of Adas Israel, the largest conservative synagogue in the District of Columbia. In 1955, she retired from her pathbreaking career at the FCC and opened a private law practice with Ed Craney as one of her clients. She died in 1991 with her Washington Post obituary noting: “[Fanney Neyman Litvin] was instrumental in the granting of many of the nation's early television and FM radio licenses.”