Jeanne Blackistone Dorsey Mandel (May 11, 1937 – October 6, 2001) was a
First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
of
Maryland and second wife of former
Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel, whom she had met in January 1963.
She was a native of
Leonardtown,
St. Mary's County, Maryland
St. Mary's County, established in 1637, is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 113,777. Its county seat is Leonardtown. The name is in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus. St. Mary's Count ...
. Mrs. Mandel died from
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...
(ALS, also known as
Lou Gehrig's disease).
Jeanne Blackistone Dorsey was elected as one of Leonardtown's Town Commissioners in 1968, the first woman elected to public office in St. Mary's County. She served two consecutive two-year terms in that office while holding the position of Leonardtown's first female police commissioner. She also served for two years as vice-chair of the Southern Maryland Municipal League and as a member of the Board of Parks and Recreation of St. Mary's County.
Her son,
John Dorsey, is a former general manager of the
Kansas City Chiefs and
Cleveland Browns.
References
1937 births
2001 deaths
American Jews
Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism
Deaths from motor neuron disease
Neurological disease deaths in Maryland
First Ladies and Gentlemen of Maryland
Local officeholders in Maryland
Women in Maryland politics
People from Leonardtown, Maryland
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
21st-century American women
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