Lynn Wheeler, longtime influential Charlotte City Council member, dies at 80

Lynn Wheeler, a former Charlotte City Council member and consummate networker who helped shape her adopted city, died Saturday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 80.

Wheeler was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just last Tuesday, two days before her birthday.

“Lynn had a heart of gold for Charlotte, a passion for Charlotte and a passion for public service,” former N.C. Governor and longtime Mayor Pat McCrory said Sunday. “Without her often behind the scenes leadership, Charlotte would not be the city it is today.”

A native of Richmond, Va., Wheeler was elected to the City Council in 1989, the same year as McCrory. She went on to serve as mayor pro tem and chair of the city’s economic development committee. She played a key role in many economic development projects. Among them: the decision to spend millions of dollars on an uptown arena not long after voters had rejected the idea in a referendum.

“She loved Charlotte through and through,” said Republican Matthew Ridenhour, a former Mecklenburg County commissioner who Wheeler mentored when he first ran for office. “She loved this city and wanted to see it become the best Charlotte it could be. She liked to be that whip for votes because she was very effective with connecting with people.”

McCrory said Wheeler “had the skill to figure out a way to get the votes needed to move forward.”

Wheeler was a Republican. But labels made no difference. She counted Ridenhour and Democratic City Council member Lawana Slack-Mayfield among her best friends.

“She could talk to Republicans and Democrats,” said former state legislator Joel Ford, a Democrat. “She could talk to CEOs and she could talk to sanitation workers. She was that kind of person and she treated everyone the same. She had a kind heart and a big heart.”

Wheeler lost her re-election bid in 2003. That didn’t stop her from being engaged in politics or the community. She worked for a time as a political consultant, as a political analyst for WBT radio and even started a training ministry at Myers Park Presbyterian Church.

She developed a passion for the Civil Rights movement. She counted among her friends the late Franklin McCain, who as a student at NC A&T joined the first sit-in at a Greensboro lunch counter in 1960.

In recent years she visited the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery and joined Civil Rights pioneer Julian Bond for tours of sites important to the movement. She also worshiped at the Memphis church of Rev. Al Green, the famous soul singer.

She loved connecting with people and connecting people with each other. She hosted Christmas parties and dinners at her Myers Park home that brought together politicians, business leaders, journalists and others. She often sought out friends for lunch.

“She was a person who loved people,” said former Superior Court Judge Richard Boner. “She loved to be around people. ... Even though she was a Republican, politics did not enter into her calculations about who she wanted to be around.”

Some said her effort to bring an arena uptown helped cost her re-election in 2003. But she never regretted it. “I think the arena is good for the city,” she told a reporter in 2006. “So, no, I would not back off that decision.”

The Spectrum Center brought the NBA back to Charlotte, drew two national political conventions and spurred nearby development.

“It proved to be the right thing to do,” said Ford. “We have the Hornets again and it is an economic development tool that attracts national and international concerts and events. The city is better off as a result.”

A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 2 at 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 1412 Providence Road in Charlotte.