Gomon was born Josephine Fellows in 1892 to Mary Walsh and Augustus W. Fellows in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. She studied mathematics at the
University of Michigan, and moved to
Detroit after graduating in 1913 to teach physics and mathematics at
Wayne State University (then called the College of the City of Detroit). She married R. Louis Gomon in 1916 and had five children with him: Bobby Lou, William, Howard Garner, Jeanne and R. Louis Jr. While raising her children, Gomon worked as a teacher in Detroit's public school system and wrote a column about education for
The Detroit News. In the 1920s Gomon became active in
Detroit's birth control movement. She helped launch
Planned Parenthood nationally and served as the president of the organization's Detroit chapter. After unsuccessfully running for public office in Detroit in 1929—being one of the first women to do so—Gomon began working for politician
Frank Murphy in 1930 as an assistant on his mayoral campaign. After he was elected, Gomon became Murphy's executive secretary; he appointed her to the position of chairwoman on the Mayor's Unemployment Committee and she assisted him with the creation of several
New Deal programs. She made a second bid for public office in 1935, but she was not elected. including many of Michigan's high-profile politicians, and in 1961 she was awarded an honorary degree by Wayne State University. Gomon continued her efforts in political activism until shortly before she died in 1975 at the age of 85. Her obituary in the
Detroit Free Press described her as "a spirited Detroiter", the "City's Conscience", and "one of the most influential women in the city's history". In 1983, she was inducted into the
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. ==References==