Tearful mourners pay their respects to Sen. Dianne Feinstein in SF City Hall
>> 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. “And that’s encouragement for us women now to have courage.”
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, which was draped in an American flag and on display behind velvet ropes. 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. Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also of San Francisco, and Mayor London Breed were among the officials who 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.As a centrist Democrat, she was criticized by people on the left, including for her support for the death penalty, and in her later years, for working with Republicans. But the straight, white woman largely earned the gratitude of a city that celebrates its racial and sexual diversity.
Mourners Wednesday expressed their pride in Feinstein.
“She kept moving on up. I was proud of her, very proud of her,” said Dorothy Hudson, 81, a retired federal government employee. “She was very kind, very smart. She opened doors up to let people know, ‘You can do it.’”
San Francisco native Cari Donovan placed a bouquet of red and pink lilies and daisies on the floor before the casket.
“She championed and fought for the rights of so many people,” Donovan said. “I’m so grateful. And I really just wanted her family to know how much she meant to me.”