Jane Byrne, Chicago's only female mayor, dies
By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Jane Byrne, Chicago's only female mayor, known as an outsider who took on the city's powerful political establishment, died on Friday at age 81. The cause of her death was not immediately known, but her daughter told the Chicago Tribune that she had been in hospice care amid failing health. "Mayor Byrne was a Chicago icon who lived a remarkable life of service to our city," current Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. A January snowstorm is credited with helping her sweep to power in 1979 when her predecessor Michael Bilandic was seen as mishandling the city's response to the bad weather. She narrowly defeated Bilandic in the Democratic primary in February, then beat the Republican contender by a wide margin. Byrne was well known for having moved into one of Chicago's most infamous public housing projects, Cabrini-Green, for three weeks to bring attention to area crime. She also signed the city's first ordinance against handguns. She is credited with welcoming filmmakers into the city, including allowing the producers of "The Blues Brothers" to make mayhem in downtown's Daley Plaza, and creating city festivals. "She had an attitude that was not restricted to what traditional Chicago politicians thought they should do," longtime Alderman Edward Burke said. Paul Dahlquist, 68, a retired attorney, said he remembered downtown used to go dark after 6 p.m., before Byrne's promotion of cultural activities. "She was fun," Dahlquist said. But her term was troubled by strikes by the Chicago teachers, firefighters and transit workers, and some supporters viewed her as going back on promises of reform. She ran for re-election but lost in the 1983 three-way Democratic primary to Harold Washington, who became Chicago's first African-American mayor. The third contender in that race was Richard M. Daley, who was the son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley and later became the city's longest-serving mayor. Before becoming mayor, Byrne served as consumer services commissioner. But Bilandic fired her when she resisted a proposed cab fare increase, and she was seen as an outsider without key allies before she ran for mayor, the Tribune said. "No one would have predicted it in December," said Burke, of Byrne's win. "Then it snowed." Chicagoan Elliott Sims, 57, recalled Byrne as "strong and feisty." "She didn't back down much," Sims said. "It really rattled the foundation of the machine." (Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Susan Heavey and Eric Beech)
