Nancy Olkon, first woman chair of Hennepin County Board, dies at 82

Nancy Olkon, the first woman to chair the Hennepin County Board and a politician known for bipartisanship while fighting for an array of causes including gay rights and help for the poor and the mentally ill, died Aug. 9 after a lengthy illness. She was 82.

Olkon was elected to the board in 1977, only the second woman to serve in that capacity, and her campaigns fought against the conventional view at the time that women should be at home with their children. Her campaign slogans included “She’s not just one of the boys!” said her husband of nearly 60 years, Ellis, who was also her campaign manager.

“She was a trailblazer,” he said. She was a liberal, but she took a nonpartisan approach to the job, partnering with conservatives when it was necessary to take action, he added.

Her longtime friend and fellow politician Sally Howard was a Republican member of the Minneapolis City Council at the same time that Olkon the Democrat was breaking ground on the County Board. The two women supported each other’s campaigns even as their political parties frowned on it.

“The Democrats and Republicans didn’t like it one bit that women were supporting each other,” Howard said.

Born in Sioux Falls, Olkon moved to the Twin Cities to enroll at the University of Minnesota. She met her husband while both were working as nurse’s aides at the University of Minnesota hospital. They both became lawyers, with Nancy Olkon graduating from what was then William Mitchell College of Law. She and Ellis had three young children when Nancy made headlines in 1976 with her campaign for the Hennepin County Board, winning office in what would become a six-year tenure as a board member.

She was eventually named chair. She authored resolutions establishing standards for evaluating claims of sexual harassment, fought to allow gay men and women to become foster parents, and, as chair, ordered all bathrooms to have diaper-changing stations.

The high-profile nature of the Hennepin County job made Olkon an example for other women, and Howard said she and Olkon leaned on each other for support as they fought for their place in local politics.

Bucking their party affiliations, Howard said she supported Olkon’s bids for office with a $100 donation, and Olkon supported hers with the same.

“The idea was to have good-quality women run for office,” Howard said. “There were so few women in politics we didn’t dare have a bad one.”

Women were given extra scrutiny on the job, Howard said, and campaigning brought frequent reminders of society’s expectations as people questioned whether they should be home with their kids instead of running for office.

The end result was that women in the 1970s found themselves working harder than their male counterparts just to prove themselves, Howard said: “Because those early women worked so darn hard, they turned the tables on people who said, ‘I don’t think women can do it.’”

Outside of political office, Olkon volunteered at the Chrysalis Women’s Center, helping low-income women with legal issues. She was one of the co-founders of the Commitment Defense Project, which provides legal services to people with mental illness. Olkon took up riding horses in her 40s and moved to Medina with her husband where they could have more land. She would ride horses as an enthusiastic member of Long Lake Hounds, a club modeled on English fox hunts but didn’t chase or kill foxes due to animal welfare concerns.

Olkon was also a frequent independent traveler, going by herself to Machu Picchu, Turkey, Israel and other destinations.

“She was fearless,” said daughter Sara. “If she wanted to do something she would just do it.”

Olkon was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1978 and, despite a serious diagnosis, survived her initial bout of illness. She was diagnosed with the cancer a second time in the 1990s and beat it again before a third diagnosis in 2012. Treatment of the cancer a third time was successful but left her immunocompromised, and it was during this period that she was bitten by a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus. She nearly died — her rabbi began making preparations for her death, according to Ellis — but Olkon survived despite suffering extensive brain injury and partial paralysis.

Olkon had been in court representing several clients with mental illness just days before she fell sick with the virus, according to Ellis.

“She saw the best in people,” Sara said. “She was incredibly kind.”

Olkon is survived by her husband, children David, Sara and Deborah, and six grandchildren. Services have been held.