Hance, Margaret, 1923-1990

<p>Margaret Taylor Hance, Phoenix mayor and political organizer, was born in 1923 at Spirit Lake, Iowa and moved to Arizona in 1926. She attended the University of Arizona from 1942 to 1944 and received a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College in Claremont, California in 1945. Hance was widowed in 1970. She has three children: Richard, Ted, and Galen (Hance) Stallman.</p>

<p>Hance was a member of the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board from 1967 to 1972 and a member of the Phoenix City Council from 1973 to 1976. At the close of her Council membership, she was serving as Acting Mayor. Hance was elected Mayor in 1976 and stepped down from that post in 1984 to become a manager of Ronald Reagan's presidential re-election campaign. She performed a similar service during George Bush's presidential election campaign of 1988.</p>

<p>While pursuing her public duties, Hance also produced public affairs documentaries for television from 1967 to 1969 and a travel program for radio from 1971 to 1975. She was also a director of the Valley National Bank.</p>

<p>Hance has been a member of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the Presidential Federalism Advisory Commission, the Arizona Justice Planning Supervisory Board, the community advisory board of the Salt-Gila Flood Control Study, the United States Conference of Mayors, the National and Arizona Leagues of Cities and Towns, and the National Conference of Republican Mayors and Elected Municipal Officials. She was the recipient of the Don Bolles Memorial Award in 1978, the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Award for Volunteerism in 1980, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Eureka College, Kansas in 1989.</p>

<p><b>RACES</b>
<ul>
<li>11/03/1981 Phoenix, AZ Mayor Won 75.40% (+64.79%)</li>
<li>11/06/1979 Mayor - Phoenix, AZ Won 85.30% (+70.60%)</li>
<li>11/01/1977 Mayor - Phoenix, AZ Won 62.64% (+42.24%)</li>
<li>11/04/1975 Mayor - Phoenix, AZ Won 73.24% (+46.48%)</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p>Throughout her life, Margaret Taylor Hance followed the lesson she learned as a child: if I person had a roof over his head and three square meals a day, he owes service to the community. First as a Volunteer and then in the political arena, Margaret gave tirelessly to the city of Phoenix , and it honored her as its first woman mayor.</p>

<p>The youngest of three children, she was born on July 2, 1923, in Spirit Lake , Iowa , to Glen C. and Helen (Kenny) Taylor. When Margaret was three years old, the family moved to Mesa , Arizona , and in 1930 settled in Phoenix , where her father became a senior vice president of Valley National Bank. She gICW L11) enjoying all school sports, particularly basketball and baseball. She also played tennis and golf and participated in a rodeo drill team in Prescott . From 1942 to 1944, Margaret attended the University of Arizona , and then enrolled in Scripps College in Claremont , California , from which she graduated in 1945.</p>

<p>During these college years, she met Richard M. Hance, an aviation cadet stationed it Luke Army Air Force Base in Arizona . They were married on August 11, 1945. The couple lived in Amarillo , Texas , where Richard was stationed, and then returned to Phoenix following his discharge. Richard went to work for the Valley National Insurance Company, eventually becoming its executive vice president.</p>

<p>Margaret Taylor Hance (July 2, 1923 – April 29, 1990) was the first female mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, taking office in 1976. She proved popular, winning four consecutive two-year terms, from 1976 to 1983.</p>

<p>Hance (born Margaret Taylor) was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, to Glen C. and Helen Kenny Taylor, the youngest of three children. She grew up active in athletics. She was a Girl Scout in Phoenix, AZ.</p>

<p>She earned a bachelor's degree from Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 1945. Hance, then Taylor, married Richard M. Hance in 1945, and the couple had three children.</p>

<b>Margaret Taylor Hance</b><br>
<b>BIRTH</b> 2 Jul 1923<br>
Spirit Lake, Dickinson County, Iowa, USA<br>
<b>DEATH</b> 29 Apr 1990 (aged 66)<br>
Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA<br>
<b>BURIAL</b><br>
Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery<br>
Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA