Byrne, Jane, 1933-2014

<p><b>RACES</b>
<ul>
<li>02/26/1991 Chicago Mayor- D Primary Lost 5.90% (-57.11%)</li>
<li>03/15/1988 Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Courts - D Primary Lost 37.74% (-14.22%)</li>
<li>02/24/1987 Chicago Mayor - D Primary Lost 46.27% (-7.22%)</li>
<li>02/22/1983 Chicago Mayor - D Primary Lost 33.64% (-2.64%)</li>
<li>04/03/1979 Chicago Mayor Won 82.05% (+65.94%)</li>
<li>02/27/1979 Chicago Mayor - D Primary Won 51.04% (+2.07%)</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p>Jane Margaret Byrne (née Burke; May 24, 1933 – November 14, 2014) was an American politician who was the first woman to be elected mayor of a major city in the United States. She served as the 50th Mayor of Chicago from April 16, 1979, until April 29, 1983. Byrne won the Chicago mayoral election on April 3, 1979, becoming the first female mayor of the city, the second largest city in the United States at the time. Until the election of Lori Lightfoot in 2019, she was the only female mayor of Chicago. Prior to her tenure as mayor, Byrne served as Chicago's commissioner of consumer sales from 1969 until 1977.</p>

<p>Byrne was born Jane Margaret Burke on May 24, 1933, at John B. Murphy Hospital in the Lake View neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, to Katherine Marie Burke (née Nolan), a housewife, and William Patrick Burke, vice president of Inland Steel. Raised on the city's north side, Byrne graduated from Saint Scholastica High School and attended St. Mary of the Woods for her first year of college. Byrne later transferred to Barat College, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology in 1955. Byrne entered politics to volunteer in John F. Kennedy's campaign for president in 1960. During that campaign she first met then Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. After meeting Daley, he appointed her to several positions, beginning in 1964 with a job in a city anti-poverty program. In June 1965, she was promoted and worked with the Chicago Committee of Urban Opportunity.</p>

<p>In 1968, Byrne was appointed head of the City of Chicago's consumer affairs department. She served as a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention (DNC) and chairperson of the DNC resolutions committee in 1973. Byrne was appointed co-chairperson of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee by Daley, over the objection of a majority of Democratic leaders, in 1975. The committee ousted Byrne shortly after Daley's death in late 1976. Shortly thereafter, Byrne accused the newly appointed mayor Michael Bilandic of being unfair to citizens of the city by approving an increase in regulated taxi fares, which Byrne charged was the result of a "backroom deal". Byrne was then dimissed from her post of head of consumer affairs by Bilandic.</p>

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<p>
<ul>
<li><b>Mayor of Chicago, 1979-1983</b></li>
<li>Democratic Party</li>
<li>Defeated Michael A. Bilandic in primary election February 27, 1979</li>
<li>Elected 50th mayor of Chicago April 3, 1979; defeated Wallace D. Johnson (Republican) and Andrew Pulley (Socialist Workers) in general election</li>
<li>Inauguration: April 16, 1979</li>
<li>Chicago's first female mayor</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li><b>Biographical</b></li>
<li>Born May 24, 1933 in Chicago</li>
<li>First married William Byrne, a pilot who died in 1959; together they had one daughter.</li>
<li>Asked by Mayor Richard J. Daley to work with the Democratic Party organization in Chicago in 1960</li>
<li>Appointed commissioner of consumer sales in 1969; in this capacity took over functions of Public Vehicle Licenses Commission when it was abolished in 1976</li>
<li>Appointed co-chair of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee in 1971</li>
<li>Fired by Mayor Michael A. Bilandic from consumer sales commissioner post in 1977</li>
<li>In 1978, married Jay McMullen, reporter for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times</li>
<li>Died November 14, 2014</li>
<li>Buried in Calvary Cemetery, Evanston</li>
</ul>
</p>