Patricia Daley Martino, oldest member of Chicago's storied Daley family, dies at 86

Patricia Daley Martino was being remembered by her family on Monday as a loving grandmother whose laughter and joy lit up a room.

“She was known for her smiles and infectious laugh,” according to a death notice place by her family. “So much so that her grandchildren called her Grinny instead of Granny. She was a proud Chicago Democrat.”

Indeed, Mrs. Martino was a member of the most prominent of Democratic Chicago families — the daughter of one mayor and sister to another, as well as the sister of a former presidential Cabinet member and mother of a City Council member forced from office.

The oldest child of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, Mrs. Martino, 86, died Saturday, according to the death notice.

Mrs. Martino was the mother of Patrick Daley Thompson, who became the first member of the storied family to be convicted of a crime in federal court.

Mrs. Martino grew up in Chicago and graduated from St. Xavier University. She was a former Chicago Public Schools English teacher at Mather, Kennedy and Tilden High Schools.

Gene Pesek/Chicago Sun-Times archives

In 2005, Mrs. Martino, the oldest of the late mayor’s seven children, offered a rare glimpse into the family life that Richard J. Daley guarded so closely. She told a Sun-Times reporter that her father was the “happiest man I ever knew” and would often wake up singing, “Good morning Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip with your hair cut just as short as mine.”

“We had the happiest of childhoods. He made us feel so loved. He was supportive. He was accessible, and he was fun. He lit up our house,” Mrs. Martino said, recalling that the Daley children would change seats while attending Sox games to be near their father.

“The kindest man I ever met in my life — loving, very affectionate and fun,” she said of her late father in 2005. “He brought fun to our home. I remember as a child running to the door, watching at the window for him to come home and running to the door to greet him. I mean it was like the sun came in with him.

“He usually came down loaded with candy or books or little presents. ... I don’t know how he fit everything into his life. I mean we went to every circus, every rodeo, every dog show, every sports show, every sporting event.”

Sun-Times archives

Mrs. Martino was also an avid reader and “could play any song requested on the piano — by ear,” according to the death notice. “She regaled friends with her wit, stories and legendary sense of humor.

“Patricia was a joy to know,” the death notice reads. “She brought the sunshine and the laughter, and always had a song at the ready.”

“She was a mother like no other,” the family wrote.

Mrs. Martino is the second of Richard J. Daley’s children to die, following her sister Eleanor, who died in 1998. Mrs. Martino’s husband also has died.

Her son, former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, was sentenced to four months in federal prison in 2022 for cheating on his taxes and lying to regulators in a federal criminal case that cost him his seat on the City Council.

Other survivors include a daughter, Courtney Thompson; another son, Peter Thompson; a sister, Mary Carol Vanecko; four brothers, former Mayor Richard M. Daley; Michael Daley; Cook County Commissioner John Daley ; former U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley; and eight grandchildren.

Visitation is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Thursday at Old St. Patrick’s Church, 700 W. Adams Street. A funeral mass will follow at noon.