Former Burlingame Mayor Rosalie O’Mahony dies peacefully at 90

The two high achieving women came from a humble background. O’Mahony was born Oct. 14, 1930, in East Camp, Castleisland, Ireland, to Martin and Mai O’Mahony. She was the eldest of eight followed by Prendiville and their siblings Muala, Timmy, Ida, James, Kitty and Cecelia.

Before becoming the detail oriented mayor so many in Burlingame came to know, O’Mahony spent her early days living with her grandparents and developed an early appreciation for mathematics. Her interest in math would lead her to become a professor at the College of San Mateo in 1965 and to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

More than two decades after beginning her teaching career in the county, O’Mahony set her eyes on city policy, running for a seat on the Burlingame City Council. She won her race in 1989 and went on to serve as mayor five times before exiting the council in 2009.

“She was a brilliant lady,” Liz O’Connor, O’Mahony’s only relative in the area, said. “She always stood her ground and she didn’t mince words. She was willing to compromise but was direct about things.”

O’Mahony’s service to the Peninsula goes well beyond her work on the council. She served as budget chair and representative on the city’s Audit Committee, as chair and a member of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency Board, a member of the Airport Roundtable and County Emergency Services Committee, chair and member of the City and County Association of Governments, vice chair of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority and as a member of the San Mateo County Investment Advisory Committee and the city’s Drainage Committee.

Those who knew and worked with O’Mahony said she was always a fair and thoughtful policymaker who stood firmly by her decisions.

Current Burlingame Mayor Ann Keighran called O’Mahony the “queen of infrastructure,” and a “trailblazer.” It was O’Mahony who mentored Keighran into public office, encouraging her to join the Burlingame Planning Commission in the early ’90s.

“She’s one of the few politicians that really made her decisions based on her principles rather than political expediency,” Keighran said. “She would rather fix sewers and balance finances than make any headlines.”

After O’Mahony’s time on the council, the city would go on to honor her with the city’s Community Recognition Award and by naming the Broadway bicycle and pedestrian bridge in her name.

Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and Chief Elections Officer Mark Church, served on multiple boards and commissions with O’Mahony and said she “was a person of the utmost integrity and character.”

“She devoted her life selflessly to serving the people and worked tirelessly to make our community a better place,” Church said. “Rosalie was truly a servant of the people, and we are all fortunate that she chose to make her mark here.”

Martin Rooney, a friend of O’Mahony and fellow Irish native, said that while the pair may have differed politically on occasion, Rooney leaning more conservative and O’Mahony more liberal, she always came prepared to any debate. He asserted that many underestimated her, particularly men.

“She could hold her corner with any politician because she was better versed than them. She could eat them up and spit them out. She was just too smart for them,” Rooney said. “The bottom line was they could not hold a candle to Rosy O’Mahony.”

Rooney reflected on the many times the politician would step into his wife’s Burlingame Avenue shop, Full Green Fields, to chat. The store offered everything Ireland and the friends would often find themselves discussing their favorite Irish poets, Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney being O’Mahony’s pick.

She lived frugally with both public dollars and her own, Rooney said. As a plumber, he often found himself within her home and described her lifestyle as modest. But what she saved, she often shared.

The friends would often speak to classes of local school children eyeing trips to Ireland. It’s at one of these meetings Rooney said he overheard O’Mahony go beyond offering her time with passport assistance and consulate discussions to also offer financial support to kid’s struggling to cover travel costs.

“She was a lovely lady in every way,” Rooney said, describing her as elegant and regal. “Just about every move she made had Burlingame in mind.”

She was an independent woman as well, Rooney and O’Connor said. Never having married or had children, O’Mahony would spend her time traveling and often spent cool winter weeks away in tropical Hawaii.

Her relationship with O’Connor blossomed in her later years when the women would visit each other at their respective homes or take drives to the medical appointments. O’Connor shared appreciation for O’Mahony’s caretaker Anna, who dedicated nearly every hour of her days for 16 months to O’Mahony.

A funeral mass, honoring the life of O’Mahony, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at St. Catherine’s Church. Rather than flowers, her loved ones ask that those interested in giving make donations to the St. Vincent DePaul Society or a charity of choice.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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