Former Downers Grove Mayor Betty Cheever dies

Downers Grove is mourning the death of Betty Cheever, the first woman to be elected as the village's mayor.

Cheever died Jan. 15 due to natural causes, according to her family. She was 92.

Cheever was elected as Downers Grove mayor in 1983 and served four consecutive terms. Some of the accomplishments during her 16 years as mayor include helping to establish the Lyman Woods Forest Preserve, getting Lake Michigan water to Downers Grove and spearheading the construction of the Belmont Road underpass.

During her time as mayor, Cheever also served on the DuPage Water Commission and was a president of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference.

"As a child, the overheard phone calls I remember were when there were flooding issues," said Mary Cheever, Betty Cheever's daughter.

Mary Cheever said her mother would be "pouring over plans to make sure that it stopped." There would be talk of "flood zones and watersheds and making sure that as the village grew, we planned properly," she said.

Before becoming mayor, Betty Cheever was active in other areas of Downers Grove government. In 1975, she was the first woman elected to serve as a village commissioner. Before that, Cheever served eight years on the plan commission.

Cheever worked for 22 years at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, working her way up to the position of executive secretary for the deputy lab director.

Mary Cheever marveled that her mother's time at Argonne overlapped with her time as mayor.

"Betty could talk to you, read a document and type it at the same time. She was amazing that way," remembers friend Nancy Peraino.

"She was a woman in a more contemporary age who could have been the CEO of an international corporation," Peraino said. "She was that good."

Lyle Cheever, Betty Cheever's husband, says his wife's involvement with the League of Women Voters got her interested in politics.

She served as president of what is now the League of Women Voters of Downers Grove, Woodridge, Lisle from 1969 to 1973. She was a member of the board of the Illinois League of Women Voters from 1974 to 1977.

Betty Cheever was also known as a voting rights advocate, continuing to register voters into her retirement.

"She would recognize somebody who needed help and would go out her way to help them," Lyle Cheever said.

In April 2017, the Pierce Downer's Heritage Alliance dedicated a bench to Cheever in Lyman Woods. A plaque specifically cites her "lifetime of leadership in civic causes including her key role in achieving public ownership of the Lyman Woods Preserve."

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a memorial service for Cheever is expected to take place sometime in spring or summer.