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Antonina Uccello

Antonina Uccello
Hartford City Council
In office
1963–1967
Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut
In office
December 5, 1967 – April 12, 1971
Preceded byGeorge B. Kinsella
Succeeded byGeorge A. Athanson
Personal details
Born(1922-05-19)May 19, 1922
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedMarch 14, 2023(2023-03-14) (aged 100)
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
OccupationPolitician

Antonina P. Uccello (pronounced [utˈtʃɛllo] ⓘ in Italian, and /juˈsɛloʊ/ in English) (May 19, 1922 – March 14, 2023), was a second generation, Italian-American politician who was Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, from 1967 to 1971.

Life

Uccello was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 19, 1922, to parents who had emigrated from the town of Canicattini Bagni, Sicily.[1] She was the second born of five sisters.

She graduated from University of St. Joseph, and pursued graduate studies in law at Trinity College and University of Connecticut.[2][3]

Career

Ann Uccello, started working as a teacher in 1944, and in 1946 went to work for the department store G. Fox & Co., Hartford, Connecticut. There she rose to the rank of executive assistant to the owner. In 1963 she approached her boss and said she would like to run for the Hartford City Council. Since the council met on Mondays, a day the department store was closed, her boss gave her permission to run.[4]

Political career

She won and served two terms on the council before being elected mayor in 1967. When she was elected the mayor of Hartford in 1967, she also became the first woman to be elected a mayor in Connecticut.[2]

She ran as a Republican in a mainly Democratic city, and remains the city's last Republican mayor to date.[5] She was re-elected as mayor in 1969, and was subsequently asked by President Richard Nixon to go to Washington D.C. to work in the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she subsequently worked during the successive administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.[2]

Ann Uccello with Richard Nixon

Later life and death

After returning to private life in 1978, she remained involved in serving the community. She became board member or trustee of several private and public organizations. She also worked in the insurance business of a family member.[3]

Uccello turned 100 in May 2022,[6] and died on March 12, 2023, of natural causes.[7][3]

Honours

In 1971 Uccello was knighted Cavaliere della Repubblica by the Italian ambassador in the USA.[8]

Sign for street named in honor of Ann Uccello, Canicattini Bagni, Italy, July 4, 2016

She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1999.[9] Ann Street in Hartford, originally named for Ann Sheldon Goodwin in 1815,[10] was renamed Ann Uccello Street in her honor in September 2008.[4][11] Another street, in the town where her parents were from, Canicattini Bagni, Italy, was named after her in July 2016.[12]

References

  1. ^ International Biographical Centre (1974). The World Who's who of Women - Volume 2. Melrose Press. p. 1260.
  2. ^ a b c "Antonina Uccello". University of Saint Joseph. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  3. ^ a b c "Antonina Uccello Obituary (1922 - 2023) - Wethersfield, CT - Hartford Courant". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  4. ^ a b Pirrotta, Paul (2021-11-09). The Exceptional Miss Uccello: The Legacy of Hartford's First Female Mayor. Independently Published. ISBN 9798482946107.
  5. ^ "Trail-Blazing Former Hartford Mayor Ann Uccello Turns 90". Hartford Courant. 2012-05-18.
  6. ^ NBC (2022-05-19). "Ann Uccello, First Woman Mayor in Connecticut, Celebrates 100th Birthday". NBC Connecticut. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  7. ^ Lemanski, Michael. "Hartford's GOP Mayoral Trailblazer, Ann Uccello, Dies At 100". Patch.com. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
  8. ^ "Casa Emigranti Italiani - Antonina "ann" uccello". Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  9. ^ "Antonina Uccello". Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  10. ^ "History of Hartford streets". HathiTrust. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Casa Emigranti Italiani - Antonina "ann" uccello". Archived from the original on 2015-01-10. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  12. ^ "Canicattini Bagni, Inaugurata ieri via Ann Antonina Uccello intitolata alla prima donna sindaco di Hartford". Siracusa News. Siracusa, Italy. 2016-07-04. Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
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