Richard Joseph Daley, the grandson of Irish immigrants, was born in the Bridgeport area of Chicago on May 15, 1902. He was graduated from De La Salle Institute in 1918 and worked in the stockyards for several years before studying law. While studying, he worked as a clerk in the Cook County Controller"s office. In 1936 Daley married Eleanor Guilfoyle, and the couple had three daughters and four sons. One son, Richard M. Daley, served in the Illinois Senate and as Cook County state"s attorney before being elected mayor of Chicago in 1989. Daley held several elected posts before becoming...
airport and tallest office building, a lakefront convention center, a governmental complex that would later bear his name, a Chicago campus for the state university, expressways, and mass transit lines. He is known by many as the best mayor Chicago may ever have.

A series of court rulings against political patronage diminished Daley"s clout in his final term, and his political organization declined further in the decade after his death. Chicago"s Mayor Richard Daley dies at age 84 after more than two decades of dominating Illinois politics. He died in Chicago of a heart attack on Dec. 20, 1976.