Marilou McCarthy von Ferstel, one of the first women ever elected to the Chicago City Council, died last week at the age of 78.
She blazed a trail for women in journalism, politics and business, then served as a mentor for those who followed in her footsteps.
During an illustrious career that spanned more than a half a century, Mrs. von Ferstel served as a society columnist for the Chicago Tribune, a public relations executive and corporate director and a civic and Democratic Party leader.
In 1971, then known as Marilou Hedlund, wife of influential attorney Reuben Hedlund, she ran for alderman as a Democrat in a 48th Ward then controlled by Republicans and won. She was one of two female aldermen elected to the City Council that year. The other was Anna Langford (16th).
They had to build a washroom for them. At the time, there was only a men’s room with a urinal behind the Council chambers. The City Council was such a male bastion, it was equipped with spittoons for tobacco-chomping men.
That was the same year that then-Mayor Richard J. Daley appointed his Consumer Services Commissioner Jane Byrne to the largely-symbolic role of co-chairman of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization.
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