Maureen Murphy (politician)
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Maureen Murphy (née Toolan; November 14, 1952 – August 9, 2008) was an American politician in the Republican Party. She held several offices in Illinois, serving as a member of the
Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...
and the Cook County Board of Review, and chairing the Cook County Republican Party from 2002 to 2004.


Early life and career

She was born Maureen Toolan in Chicago and grew up in the suburb of
Blue Island, Illinois Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, south of Chicago Loop, Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park, Chicago, Morgan Park neighborho ...
. She married Jack Murphy in 1970, and they settled in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park. They had five sons, one of whom died shortly after birth in 1983. After working as a realtor, Murphy served on the Evergreen Park High School Board (to which she was elected in 1982) and as Worth Township Clerk (from 1985 to 1989). In 1988, she ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Cook County Recorder of Deeds, losing the Republican primary to Bernard Stone.


Political career

She was elected to the
Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...
representing Illinois' 36th district from 1993 to 1997; while State Representative, she chaired the House revenue committee. Maureen Murphy also served as Worth Township Republican Committeeman. Murphy served as chairman of the Cook County Republican Party from 2002 to 2004; she was the first woman to hold that position. She also served as the 1st district Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review from 1998 to 2007. In her last two years of the board, she joined Joseph Berrios to block the reforms championed by its remaining member, Larry Rogers, Jr. On November 7, 2006 Murphy was defeated in her bid for reelection losing to Democrat Brendan F. Houlihan by a narrow margin of 2.4%. During the
2008 Republican Party presidential primaries From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party chose their nominee for President of the United States, president in the 2008 United States presidential election. United States Senate, Senator J ...
, Murphy worked on behalf of the presidential campaign of former U.S. Senator
Fred Thompson Freddie Dalton Thompson (August 19, 1942 – November 1, 2015) was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as a Unite ...
as a congressional district chair for
Illinois's 1st congressional district Illinois's first congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Illinois. Based in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, the district includes much of the South Side of Chicago and continues southwest to Joliet, Illinois, ...
. Maureen was the first woman, first Republican, and first suburban resident to serve on the Cook County Board of Review.


Death

Murphy died from lung cancer at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago on August 9, 2008, at the age of 55.


References

1952 births 2008 deaths 20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century Illinois politicians 21st-century American women politicians Candidates in the 1988 United States elections Deaths from lung cancer in Illinois Members of the Cook County Board of Review People from Blue Island, Illinois People from Evergreen Park, Illinois Politicians from Cook County, Illinois Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Women state legislators in Illinois {{Cook County Board of Review commissioners, state=collapsed