Janet Gray Hayes | |
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Mayor of San Jose, California | |
In office January 9, 1975 – January 9, 1983 |
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Preceded by | Norman Mineta |
Succeeded by | Tom McEnery |
Personal details | |
Born |
Rushville, Indiana, U.S. |
July 12, 1926
Died | April 21, 2014 Saratoga, California, U.S. |
(aged 87)
Janet Gray Hayes (July 12, 1926 – April 21, 2014) was the 60th mayor of San Jose, California, elected to two consecutive, four-year terms from 1975 to 1983. She was both the first woman to be elected mayor San Jose, and the first woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city with a population of more than 500,000 people.
Born in Rushville, Indiana, Hayes went to University of Chicago and then received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University. In 1956, Hayes and her husband moved to San Jose, California where her husband practiced medicine. Hayes was elected to the San Jose City Council in 1971 and was a Democrat. She died of a stroke on April 26, 2014 in Saratoga, California.