Macdonald remembered for service and devotion

Virginia Macdonald was remembered during funeral services this morning as a pioneering woman in politics who also was a loving mother and wife - one who never let political life interfere with devotion to family.

Macdonald died Saturday at age 87.

Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder, who gave words of remembrance at St. Simon's Episcopal Church in Arlington Heights, said she was advised shortly after joining the village park board that she should get to know Macdonald.

The message, Mulder said, was, "If you didn't know Virginia, who were you? She was Arlington Heights."

Mulder spoke of Macdonald's generosity and told how she had attended - before she knew Macdonald very well - a local performance with her then-5-year-old son. When Mulder needed to leave for a board meeting and her son pleaded to stay until show's end. Macdonald offered to watch him and take him home to Mulder's husband afterward.

"Doesn't every state senator offer to baby-sit?" Mulder asked, to appreciative laughs from mourners.

Mulder gave an Abraham Lincoln quote that Macdonald's daughter, Susan Van Bramer, had offered to sum up what her mother meant to her: "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

Mulder recalled that Macdonald's late husband, Alan, was "the great love of her life" and that he supported her endeavors and often traveled with her to Springfield, where Macdonald served for a decade in the state House and a decade in the Senate.

Within those Capitol walls, said Rev. Wendy Lane, who delivered the homily today, Macdonald served "with integrity, at a time when women were not invited, encouraged or particularly tolerated to be leaders, when women were not meant to draft legislation or lobby on behalf of a bill or advocate for someone who had no voice or to speak truth to power, Virginia did all these things with grace."

Lane said that Macdonald, well known for her ability to work in a bipartisan fashion with legislative colleagues, brought that same quality to personal political discussions.

"Virginia and I never agreed much on politics," Lane said. "I am a committed Democrat, and I've always been a little left of Lenin. And she was a loyal and committed Republican.

"Yet she always found something on which we could agree and then build a consensus on, so that we might take away from our visit something we agreed on, something we could make action happen from."

Despite all of Macdonald's contributions to family, community and state, Lane said she once heard Macdonald wonder aloud whether she had done enough.

"Virginia," Lane said, "what must you have been thinking?"

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>Earlier Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=220951">Macdonald leaves legacy of grace and commitment <span class="date">[07/15/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>