Janet Gray Hayes

Who was Janet Gray Hayes?

Janet Gray Hayes was the 60th mayor of San Jose, California, elected to two consecutive, four-year terms from 1975 to 1983. She was both the first woman to be elected mayor San Jose, and the first woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city with a population of more than 500,000 people.

Born in Rushville, Indiana, Hayes went to University of Chicago and then received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University. In 1956, Hayes and her husband moved to San Jose, California where her husband practiced medicine. Hayes was elected to the San Jose City Council in 1971 and was a Democrat. She died of a stroke in 2014, in Saratoga, California.