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Margy Hamilton shares stories from her active career in Wheaton politics

Posted July 11, 2010 11:00 pm

By Susan Dibble

What 95-year-old Marget "Margy" Hamilton of Wheaton read in her local newspaper so many years ago made her furious.

The time was World War II. Her husband unexpectedly had been drafted into the military. Hamilton was left to care for their four young sons and her mother-in-law in their home outside Barrington.

She was exhausted when she picked up the paper that night, but she couldn't let go what she had read.

The Barrington Park District would not allow Japanese-American children to use the local swimming pool.

"I hit the ceiling," Hamilton recalled. "These children were born here. They were citizens."

Hamilton called a few of her League of Women Voters friends and the next day they picketed the pool. She wrote letters to the park district. Pointing out that the swimming pool had been built by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, Hamilton argued the park district could not deny its use to American citizens.

"My gosh, they changed their minds," Hamilton said. "I discovered how easy it was."

The former mayor of Wheaton and former director of the Older Adult Institute at College of DuPage, Hamilton later would fight many battles that would not be so easy. But that early skirmish with the Barrington Park District had given her a taste of what she could do when backed by a group of concerned citizens.

"I was hooked," she wrote in an autobiographical account.

Wheaton city politicsThe Hamiltons moved to Wheaton in 1950. When they were presented with the deed to their house to sign, they read they could not sell their home to Jews or people of color. The couple hired an attorney to change the deed."We said, 'If we are ever in a position to correct that, we will,'" Hamilton said.That opportunity came years later when Hamilton served in Wheaton city government. She hadn't intended to run for the city commission when she formed a League of Women Voters chapter in Wheaton. To become a chapter, the group did a study of local government and concluded that Wheaton should replace its outdated commission with a professional city manager to work with elected council members.League members asked commission candidates to make a city manager-council government part of their election platform, but they got no takers. To bring the issue in front of the voters, Hamilton decided to run for commissioner herself."At the time, it never occurred to me that I was going to be elected, but I was," she said.Hamilton became the city's first woman commissioner and served on the council from 1959-71. When it came time to divvy up the responsibilities, she got the job considered least desirable: commissioner of street and public improvements.That's when she discovered the bags of nickels and dimes collected from parking meters sitting in the basement of city hall. The city clerk, she learned, was a coin collector and wanted to go through the coins before they were deposited.Meanwhile, the mayor was found to be having an illicit relationship with a high school student.Hamilton said the inadequacy of the commission style of governing quickly became apparent to her fellow commissioners and, with voter approval, they changed the form of government while she was in office.Toward the end of her time as a council member, she introduced a comprehensive fair housing ordinance, the first of its kind in Illinois."I started getting letters, telephone calls, threatening my life. They came from all over the county," she said.A cross was burned on her front lawn and an unidentified motorist often followed her when she drove home from late-night council meetings.The FBI investigated. For nearly four years, Hamilton had bodyguards when she went out in public. But she continued to accept invitations to speak on fair housing from communities throughout Illinois."If you are afraid, you will never accomplish anything," she said.The ordinance passed in Wheaton amid much controversy."It took us a long time to pass it," she said.When a previous mayor resigned, Hamilton was elected as Wheaton's first woman mayor and served a two-year term from 1969-71. During that time, she also served as president of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference.Bernard Kleima, executive director of HOPE Fair Housing Center in Wheaton, first got to know Hamilton when she served as mayor. Not only did Hamilton support fair housing, she advocated the construction of Wheaton Center, the city's first multifamily high-rise development in the downtown, he said."She was such a likable person, she could get things through (that) others could not," Kleima said. "I always found her to be compassionate and creative, and challenged us all to be better."Don Rose, the city manager of Wheaton for the past 30 years, said his conversations with people from Hamilton's days in municipal government also point to the influence she was able to have on the city."The growth and outlook of the city had not been broad up to that time," he said.Post politicsHamilton left city politics in 1971 when both she and her husband, Luther, retired. They traveled extensively for several years before he passed away in 1977.Hamilton was offered a job at the College of DuPage and worked for 11 years as the assistant to the associate dean of social and behavioral science. She had announced that she was going to retire when the director of the newly formed Older Adult Institute left only a few weeks before the 1986 fall quarter was to begin. Hamilton was asked if she would fill in."I told them I would take the job for six months," she said. "At the end of six months, I was having so much fun directing the Older Adult Institute, I changed my mind."Hamilton led the institute until 2008, the year she turned 93. During that time, the registration at the institute had climbed from 65 to 2,000, she said.Marianne Myrick, an administrative assistant at College of DuPage who worked in an office close to Hamilton's, remembers the joy the older woman took in creating courses that would interest seniors."She was just passionate about it," Myrick said. "(She) enjoyed providing an outlet for people to have meaningful discussions."Myrick recently joined other friends and family members in celebrating Hamilton's 95th birthday at a party at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle."She's still sharp as a tack," Myrick said. "She was a great friend, a great inspiration. I wish I had met her sooner."Hamilton said she encourages other women to just do what they see needs to be done."You don't get involved. Things happen, present themselves to you and you take care of them," she said.Now living in an apartment in Wheaton, Hamilton still cooks, paints and eagerly participates in a book group she started 50 years ago. She professes not to have any secrets to share about how to live a long, healthy and active life."I haven't the faintest idea. I do nothing special," she said.At the request of her three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, she is working on writing her memoirs. She admits the project is going slowly."Imagine how much you can squeeze in in 95 years," she said.True13542000Marget "Margy" Hamilton, with a painting she did in the background in her apartment in Wheaton.Tanit Jarusan | Staff PhotographerTrue Marget Hamilton's accomplishmentsMarget Hamilton is credited with laying the groundwork for modern Wheaton during her years on the Wheaton City Council, 1959-69, and as the city's first woman mayor, 1969-71. Issues she successfully advocated or supported included:• A city manager/council form of government• First comprehensive open housing ordinance in Illinois to end racial discrimination• Fluoridation of city water• High-rise Wheaton Center housing development• Hiring the city's first full-time professional engineer• Saving the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad right-of-way for future use as the Illinois Prairie PathOther accomplishments• Serving as president of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, 1970-71• Founding the Wheaton chapter of the League of Women Voters• Serving as the director the College of DuPage's Older Adult Institute for more than 20 years

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