Mayor’s Mother Ill Following Stroke

Frances O’Connor, Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s 78-year-old mother, was gravely ill Sunday after suffering a stroke Saturday night while watching television, the mayoral spokesman said Sunday.

O’Connor was taken to the emergency room of Sharp Memorial Hospital, where she was semi-conscious in the intensive care unit Sunday night. The mayor and the family asked that no information about her mother’s condition be released, mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said.

O’Connor apparently was watching television when she slumped over, suffering a stroke. She was taken to the hospital at 8:30 p.m.

Last week, Frances O’Connor attended the funeral of her husband of 54 years, Jerome O’Connor.

“It’s a tough time,” Downey said.

The mother of 13 children, Frances O’Connor often played more of a backstage role than did her husband. When she and her family were featured on the cover of Parade magazine in 1956, she told the reporter that she and her husband “may not be rich in things like cars and clothes . . . but we are rich in children.”