Jane Byrne, Chicago's First Female Mayor, Dies at 81

Jane Byrne, Chicago’s first and only woman mayor, died Friday. She was 81 and in hospice care. She died before 10 a.m. surrounded by family, her daughter Kathy Byrne told the Chicago Tribune.

Elected mayor in 1979, she was eccentric, colorful and stepped into a job that was perhaps too big for her. A protege and staffer to the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, she stunned the city with her populist victory. She lost her bid for re-election to Harold Washington.

The Circle Interchange downtown was named in her honor in August, and that was her last public appearance. The park near the Water Tower was also named for her this year

» read Jane Byrne’s Chicago Tribune obituary

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg:

The average Chicagoan recalling the Jane Byrne era remembers her for the popular city traditions she initiated — she loved parties and lavish entertainments. She created the festival that became Taste of Chicago and initiated the return of farmers markets to downtown.

She also was famous for moving into one of the Cabrini Green high-rises and living there, briefly, in an effort to draw attention to gang violence in public housing. She also pushed to ban handguns in Chicago.

» read on SunTimes.com

How Jane Byrne got elected:

When furious residents complained that many parking lots were not plowed and that many more weren’t accessible because surrounding streets still were snowed in, Bilandic retorted, “Well, we wouldn’t be advertising them unless they were clear.” But a Tribune report Jan. 18 proved most of those school and park lots were not plowed.

As if that weren’t enough, Bilandic announced he was cracking down on parked cars, ordering police to issue tickets and start towing, something that had to happen if the streets were going to be cleared. But the mayor kept talking, adding that there would be “no exceptions” for sick, elderly or poor people who couldn’t move their cars. “If there are such hardship cases, they can tell that to a judge. That’s what a judge is for.”

» the blizzard that got Jane Byrne elected, read on ChicagoTribune.com

» read Jane Byrne’s real birthdate on ChicagoTribune.com