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Jane Margaret Byrne (born May 24, 1934) was the first female Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. She served from April 16, 1979 to April 29, 1983
Jane Byrne first entered politics to help John F. Kennedy get elected U.S. President. It was at that time that she first met Mayor Richard J. Daley, who, in 1968, appointed her head of consumer affairs in Chicago, a post she would hold until fired by Michael Bilandic in 1977. Byrne used her firing to launch an attack on Bilandic in the 1978 mayoral primary. Although most people believed she had little chance of winning, a series of freak snowstorms in January which paralyzed the city caused Bilandic to be seen as not being able to keep the city working and gave her the edge she needed to win. As mayor, Jane Byrne moved her residence, amidst much publicity, to live in the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects as part of a plan to eradicate crime in the area. She also hired her husband as a consultant, for a token $1 a year.
Byrne's book, My Chicago (ISBN 0-8101-2087-9), was published in 1992, and treats on the subject of her life prior to, and including, her political career.
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