SAN FRANCISCO — Mourners streamed into San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to pay their respects to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, honoring her as fearless, smart and the glue who kept the city together after two political assassinations that catapulted her into the mayor’s office and the national spotlight.
“She wasn’t afraid to do a man’s job. She wasn’t afraid to be a senator. She wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted,” said Lawanda Carter, 48, of San Francisco.
Carter was among the scores of everyday San Franciscans and political leaders alike who brought flowers, bowed their heads or clasped their hands in prayer as they stood before Feinstein’s casket. Many said they had never met Feinstein, but wanted to honor an indefatigable public servant who fought to level the playing field for women, members of the LGBTQ community and racial minorities.
Feinstein died early Friday in her Washington, D.C., home of natural causes, said Adam Russell, a spokesperson for her office. She was 90.
She was San Francisco’s first female mayor and one of California’s first two women U.S. senators, a job she first won alongside Barbara Boxer in 1992, dubbed the “Year of the Woman.” Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also of San Francisco, and Mayor London Breed paid their respects.
Feinstein spent much of her career in the U.S. Senate but will be known as the forever mayor of San Francisco, a role she inherited in tragedy. She was president of the Board of Supervisors in November 1978 when a former supervisor assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor, at City Hall.
Feinstein, who found Milk’s body, became acting mayor and won election twice to serve as mayor until 1988.