Anne Rudin, the first woman to be elected Sacramento mayor, died last Thursday from complications of pneumonia, her family said. She was 97.  “Sacramento has lost a champion of the people and trailblazer for women and girls across our region,” Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D–Sacramento) said in a statement Sunday. “Her impact will be forever felt in our great city and her legacy will continue to inspire and guide us forward.” 

The eldest of three children, Rudin, an Italian-American, earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Temple University, where she went on to teach in the school of nursing. Rudin moved to Sacramento in the late 1950s, and was first elected to Sacramento City Council in 1971, the first woman elected in more than two decades. She then served as the city’s first elected female mayor from 1983 to 1993. Belle Cooledge was Sacramento’s first female mayor in 1948, but she was appointed by City Council — not elected. Cooledge did not win reelection.