Jane Byrne

Who is Jane Byrne?

Jane Margaret Burke-Byrne is a former Mayor of Chicago. She served in office from April 16, 1979 to April 29, 1983. She is the first and to-date only female mayor of Chicago. Chicago is the largest city in the United States to have had a female mayor as of 2014. Byrne first entered politics to help John F. Kennedy get elected president in 1960. It was during that campaign that she first met Mayor Richard J. Daley.

In 1968, Daley appointed her head of Chicago's consumer affairs department. Byrne held that post until she was fired by Mayor Michael Bilandic in 1977. After her firing, Byrne launched a campaign to unseat Bilandic in the 1979 Democratic mayoral primary, the real contest in this heavily Democratic city. At first, political observers believed her to have little chance of winning. However, a series of major snowstorms in January paralyzed the city and caused Bilandic to be seen as an ineffective leader. Jesse Jackson endorsed Byrne. Many Republican voters voted in the Democratic primary in order to beat Mayor Bilandic and the Democratic "Machine".