Early and Personal Life
Richard M. Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. and Eleanor Daley, the late Mayor and First Lady of Chicago. Originally from Bridgeport, a historically Irish-American neighborhood located southwest of the Chicago Loop, Daley graduated from the De La Salle Institute high school and obtained his bachelor's degree from Providence College in 1964 and his Juris Doctor from DePaul University. In 1962, at age 19, home on Christmas break from Providence, Daley was ticketed for running a stop sign at Huron and Rush, and the Chicago Sun-Times headline was "Mayor's Son Gets Ticket, Uses No Clout," with a subhead reading "Quiet Boy."
Daley served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.
Daley earned a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University. He passed the Illinois Bar Examination on his third try. When asked about the subject, Daley said "I flunked the bar exam twice. I had to keep studying harder and harder and harder. I passed it the third time." Daley never tried a case.
Mayor Daley was married to Margaret Corbett until her death on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 after a decade-long battle with metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her bones and liver. They have four children: Nora, Patrick, Elizabeth and Kevin, all born at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Their second son, Kevin, died at age 2 of complications of spina bifida in 1981.
Mayor Daley is a brother of William M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff and former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton; John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners who also serves as its chairman of the County Board's Finance Committee; and Micheal Daley, an attorney with Daley & George, a law firm founded by their father Richard J. Daley, that specializes in zoning law and is often hired by developers to help get zoning changes from City Hall.
Daley was elected to his first party office as a delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention. After his father died in 1976, Daley succeeded his father as the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman, a party post, until succeeded in the post by his brother John P. Daley in 1980. With John P. Daley holding the post from 1980 to the present, a Daley has held the post of 11th Ward Committeeman for 60 years.
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