Eleanor "Sis" Daley

Eleanor Daley (née Guilfoyle; March 4, 1907 – February 16, 2003), better known as Sis Daley, was the wife of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley[4] and the mother of former mayor Richard M. Daley. Daley served as first lady of the City of Chicago from her husband's appointing in April 1955 until his death in December 1976, and first mother from April 1989 until her death in February 2003.

Eleanor "Sis" Daley
Daley attending the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Chicago, 1972.
Born
Eleanor Guilfoyle

(1907-03-04)March 4, 1907
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedFebruary 16, 2003(2003-02-16) (aged 95)[1]
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Sepulchre Cemetery (Worth, Illinois)
NationalityAmerican
Other names
  • Sis Daley
  • Lady Daley
Known forFirst Lady of Chicago (1955–1976)
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 1936; died 1976)
Children7, including Richard, John, and William[2][3]
RelativesPatrick R. Daley (grandson)

Biography

Early life and family

Daley was born Eleanor Guilfoyle in 1907, in the south side Chicago neighborhood of Canaryville, to a large Irish family. She was the daughter of Honora Bridget "Nora" (McAuliff) and Patrick H. Guilfoyle, an insurance agent.[5] She met Richard J. Daley at a local ball game. Her brother, Floyd, who was a friend of Daley's, introduced the couple. Their first date was attending a Chicago White Sox game. Daley was a graduate of Saint Mary High School and was a secretary at a local paint company. After a six-year-long courtship, during which her future husband finished law school, they married on June 17, 1936. The Daley's lived in a modest brick bungalow at 3536 South Lowe Street, close to where both had grown up.[6] They had three daughters and four sons, in that order. Their eldest son, Richard M. Daley, was mayor of Chicago from 1989 through 2011. The youngest son, William M. Daley, served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1997-2000. Another son, John P. Daley, is a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Personality

Daley was a quiet woman who seldom spoke out on political matters. One exception was her criticism of Boss, the 1971 Mike Royko biography of Mayor Daley portraying the mayor in an unfavorable light. Always fiercely protective of her husband and family, she uttered sharp criticism of the book, and this led to one local retailer leaving the book off its shelves.

In 1972, developers had obtained the city's tentative approval of a proposal to tear down the old Chicago Public Library downtown and replace it with a modern office tower. Asked her view of the proposal by a Chicago Tribune reporter, Sis Daley observed that she had used the library as a child, and said of the demolition, "I don't think that would be nice." Soon thereafter, a city commission unanimously voted down the project.

Of Sis, the mayor told the press: "She doesn't speak for me and I don't speak for her. She is able to speak for herself very well, whatever she has on her mind." It was said that although her husband might have controlled every aspect of the city's government, she controlled everything inside their house.

Later years/death

In her later years as a widow and especially during her son's tenure as mayor she became something of a matriarch of Chicago, in fact her birthday of March 4 happens to also be the anniversary of the incorporation of the city. She attended events to honor her late husband at the University of Illinois at Chicago, including the dedication of the university library named after him in 1999 and on the centenary of his birth in 2002. Mrs. Daley died on February 16, 2003 in her Bridgeport home of a stroke 16 days shy of her 96th birthday as her son was running for a fifth term as mayor in the 2003 Chicago mayoral election.

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References
  1. The Washington Post - Eleanor 'Sis' Daley, 95 - February 21, 2003
  2. Daley: A Retrospective: A Historical Exploration of Former Chicago Mayor
  3. Chicago Tribune - Hundreds Bid Farewell To Daleys' `Best Sister' (Family And Friends Remember Ellie Daley For Her Laughter And Love) - January 08, 1998
  4. Bridgeport By Joanne Gazarek Bloom, Maureen F. Sullivan, Daniel Pogorzelski
  5. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=eleanor-daley-sis&pid=801262&fhid=2289
  6. Cohen, Adam; Taylor, Elizabeth, eds. (2000). American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley--His Battle for Chicago and the Nation. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 624. ISBN 0-316-83403-3. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
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