Eileen Foley

Helen "Eileen" Foley (

Foley followed her mother, Mary (née Carey) Dondero, the first woman to become mayor of Portsmouth (1945–47), into politics.^[1][3]

Portraits of Foley and her mother now hang side-by-side in Portsmouth City Hall.^[3] Portsmouth's city council chambers have also been renamed in Foley's honor.^[3]

Biography

Early life

Foley was born Helen "Eileen" Dondero on February 27, 1918, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.^[1][2] She was one of four daughters of Charles and Mary (Carey) Dondero.^[1] Her father, was the first male baby of Italian descent to be born in Portsmouth.^[4] Her mother was of Irish descent.^[2] Her paternal grandparents, who had emigrated from Italy in 1883, owned and operated the Dondero's Fruit and Vegetable Store on Congress Street in Portsmouth.^[4] Eileen Foley and her sisters were raised in an apartment above the family's produce store.^[4]

On August 17, 1923, Foley, who was five years old at the time,

She earned a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University.^[1]

In 1948, she married John J. Foley, a

Foley followed her mother into politics. Mary Carey Dondero, who had never completed 8th grade, nevertheless became the first woman elected to the Portsmouth City Council by 1940.[2] In 1945, she became not only the first woman elected mayor of Portsmouth, but also the first female mayor of any U.S. city east of the Mississippi River. She served as mayor from 1945 to 1947.^[3]

Upon her mother's death in 1960, Foley focused much of her professional energy into politics and public service.^[2] Foley later wrote of her mother, "I lived with a lady who was a political person for 24 hours every day, and who loved every minute of it."^[2]

Mary Carey Dondero had held office as the city's first female mayor from 1945 to 1947, at a time when there were very few elected women officials in the United States.^[3]

Eileen Foley enjoyed an extensive political career in local and state politics. She served as the mayor of Portsmouth for eight terms (equaling 16 years) from 1968 to 1971, 1984 to 1985, and 1988 to 1997.

Mayor Foley headed a 21-member group from Portsmouth to Nichinan in 1986 to complete the agreement.[2] The sister city agreement between Portsmouth and Nichinan by the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War, a 1905 agreement which was signed at the Portsmouth Naval Yard.^[2] She also headed an official visit to Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. The idea for the Carrickfergus-Portsmouth came from John Paul Jones' naval battles during the American Revolutionary War.^[2] Finally, Foley spearheaded a sister city agreement with Portsmouth, England, noting that the original colonial Province of New Hampshire had been established by Captain John Mason.^[2]

Foley was a former member of the Prescott Park Arts Festival's board of directors, which was in financial distress by the 1980s. She and her colleagues have been credited with restoring the festival's financial health.^[3]

Foley was elected to the

The original Memorial Bridge, which Foley had helped dedicate in 1923, was permanently closed on July 27, 2011, due to disrepair and serious safety hazards. Foley tied a blue ribbon onto the bridge's plaque at its closing ceremony on October 1, 2011.^[6] A replacement was constructed. The new, $88 million replacement Memorial Bridge was officially opened during a ceremony on August 9, 2013.^[1][2] Foley, aged 95 years old at the time, cut the ribbon for the bridge's reopening, just as she had done for the original span in 1923.^[1][5]

Helen "Eileen" Foley died on February 22, 2016, at the age of 97, five days before her 98th birthday.