Anna Langford, Chicago's First Black Female Alderman, Dies

In the end, Anna R. Langford, the first African-American woman to serve on the Chicago City Council, was happy to have lived to see the first African-American man named the Democratic presidential nominee.

"She said she would have liked to see Barack Obama elected, but was happy with where he was at," Larry Langford said of his 90-year-old mother, who died at her Englewood home Wednesday night after a brief battle with lung cancer.

Even in illness, the woman who became known as an outspoken supporter of Mayor Harold Washington was able to take in both political parties' conventions -- by television -- in recent weeks.

Ms. Langford's son chuckles about the night Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin spoke at the Republican convention. He looked over at his mother and noticed she was pretending to play a violin.

"She couldn't talk much," Larry Langford said. "But mama was over there playing the violin -- she was working the violin like 'Who cares?' She was a Democrat to the end."

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