Francis J. “Frank” Sullivan was press secretary to Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley for the final four years of his life and later wrote of his time with Daley in a 1989 book, “Legend.”
Sullivan, 91, died June 18 in a suburban nursing facility following a year of declining health, said his daughter, Molly.
Born in Evanston, Sullivan was the grandson of Francis J. Sullivan, who served two terms in the state House in the early 1900s. Sullivan grew up in the Edgewater neighborhood, graduated from Loyola Academy in 1946 and received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University Chicago.
Frank Sullivan, former press secretary for Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. (Family photo)
During college, Sullivan worked in 1949 for NBC’s Chicago studios as a page. After graduating from Loyola, he served in the Army before going to work for his father’s insurance company, his daughter said.
In 1956, the Chicago Sun-Times hired him as a straw poll staffer. He soon was promoted to reporter, and he first covered criminal courts, and then, starting in 1964, covered City Hall.
“I remember him telling me he loved politics,” his daughter said. “He was always in pursuit of knowledge and ideas and when you’re a reporter you’re always in pursuit. And he liked criminal courts because that’s where the action always was, and with City Hall, it was the same.”
In 1967, Daley asked Sullivan to become a press aide to the appointed Cook County State’s Attorney John Stamos, who was making a bid for election. The job was short-lived, as Stamos never was officially slated for the office.
Then, at Daley’s request, Sullivan in March 1968 joined the Chicago Police Department, where he launched the department’s news affairs office and served as director of public information for the next four years, regularly reporting to the mayor.
Sullivan was thrust into the spotlight in the summer of 1968 amid the riots during the Democratic National Convention, when police officers indiscriminately beat protesters and members of the media in what a national commission later called a “police riot.” He forcefully defended the department’s actions.
“When clubs are swung, blood is shed,” Sullivan said at an August 1968 news conference. “It’s unfortunate but necessary.”
Sullivan moved to the mayor’s office in 1972 and became Daley’s press secretary the next year, replacing Earl Bush.
He sparred with reporters as the U.S. Justice Department indicted eight aldermen, a Cook County Circuit Court clerk, a Cook County clerk, two Chicago police commanders, a former Illinois governor and Bush himself for various alleged crimes. Then Daley suffered a stroke in May 1974 and did not come to City Hall for four months.
Sullivan recalled in 1977 that during that Daley’s illness, the mayor told him, “It was easy to be with me when times were good. You have stood with me when times have been hard.”
Sullivan continued working with Daley after the mayor won reelection with almost 78% of the vote in April 1975.
On a frigid Monday, Dec. 20, 1976, Daley collapsed on his way to lunch and was taken to the office of his private physician on North Michigan Avenue.
After suffering a massive heart attack, Daley was pronounced dead in his doctor’s office, and in an alley where an ambulance was backed up to a loading dock to take the mayor’s body away, it fell to Sullivan to make the announcement.
“I am sorry to inform you and the people of Chicago that Mayor Richard J. Daley is dead,” Sullivan told reporters.
Sullivan remained press secretary for Daley’s successor, Michael Bilandic before leaving City Hall in April 1977. At that time, he told the Tribune that he believed Daley “did more for Chicago than all of his critics and opponents combined.”
“It was a great adventure working for Mayor Daley for almost nine years,” Sullivan said. “It was truly the last hurrah.”
Sullivan formed his own public relations firm, Frank Sullivan and Associates, and represented various clients over the next decade-plus, including the village of Berwyn, Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes and former Chicago Park District Superintendent Edmund Kelly.
In 1985, Sullivan resurrected Avenue M magazine, paying $20,000 to the estate of the previous owner. The magazine was aimed at moneyed North Side residents, with a mix of stories about the area’s tony retailers and socialites but also articles about Sullivan’s own twin interests, journalism and politics.
“I think we fill a vacuum. We are a magazine for successful people who have arrived,” Sullivan told the Tribune in 1987.
Also in 1989, Sullivan published “Legend,” a 258-page memoir about his years working with Daley.
Sullivan stopped publishing Avenue M about 1990. After that he did some consulting and ghostwrote several books, including for Holocaust survivors who had wanted their family history memorialized for their children, his daughter said. He also ghostwrote a book for a prominent Chicago developer, she said.
During retirement, Sullivan divided his time between Florida and Chicago. He wrote letters to the editor and kept up with old associates, including those in the news business, Molly Sullivan said.
Sullivan also self-published his autobiography, “A Few Thoughts on the Road to 90,” she said.
In addition to his daughter, Sullivan is survived by his wife of 63 years, Sally; a son, Matt; three sisters, Betty Moraghan, Trudy Schneider and Noreen Brady; a brother, Gene; and three grandchildren;
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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