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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF JANE MARGARET BYRNE
WHEREAS, God, in His infinite wisdom, has called an iconic political leader, Jane Byrne, renowned for her brilliant intellect, for the vibrancy and warmth of her person, for her deeply principled integrity, for her pioneering work and trailblazing as a woman in politics, government and academia; and
WHEREAS, Jane Margaret Byrne was born on May 24, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois to William Patrick Burke and Katherine Marie Nolan; and
WHEREAS, in 1955 she graduated from Barat College of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois where she later attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she took classes toward receiving a teaching certificate; and
WHEREAS, in 1956 she married William P. Byrne, a Marine who later died in a plane crash in 1959. The couple had a daughter, Katherine C. Byrne. Ms. Byrne remarried in 1978 to a journalist Jay McMullen until his death from cancer in 1992; and
WHEREAS, in 1960, Ms. Byrne first entered into politics as a volunteer for John F. Kennedy's campaign for President of the United States where she first met Mayor Richard J. Daley; and
WHEREAS, in 1968 Ms. Byrne was appointed by Mayor Richard J. Daley to head the Chicago Consumer Affairs Department until 1977; and
WHEREAS, in 1977 Ms. Byrne launched a campaign to unseat Mayor Michael Bilandic in the 1979 Democratic mayoral primary in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, in 1979, Ms. Byrne defeated Bilandic in the mayoral primary and went on to win the general election, becoming not only the first female to hold the position of mayor in Chicago but the first woman elected mayor of any major U.S. city ; and
WHEREAS, as Mayor of Chicago, Ms. Byrne made inclusive decisions and some accomplishments include her signing ordinances to get handguns off the street, bringing transparency to the city's budget process, and revitalizing the business district known as the Loop and helpin...
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