Funeral Set For Late Mayor Jane Byrne
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Trailblazing former Mayor Jane Byrne will be laid to rest Monday, after a funeral mass at a Lincoln Park church her grandparents attended.
Her funeral was scheduled for 11 a.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 W. Webster Av.
Byrne died Friday at the age of 81. She was the city's first and only female mayor, but her funeral won't only be about her political achievements. It's also about her life as a mother, grandmother, and aunt.
She only served one term in office, but it was a groundbreaking four years that shattered the glass ceiling, and in the view of many it broke up the so-called "Good Ol' Boys" network at City Hall.
Byrne came to power in 1979 by defeating incumbent Mayor Michael Bilandic, but she lost her bid for re-election in 1983 to another trailblazer, Mayor Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago.
After that, she rarely was seen in the public eye, though she did appear in August, when the Circle Interchange was renamed in her honor.
Before the funeral service, her casket will be driven past her childhood home, and then taken to St. Vincent for visitation from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.
After the 11 a.m. mass, her funeral procession will pass by her home on the Magnificent Mile, before proceeding to the cemetery for burial at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston.
