Ruby Hunt, third woman ever elected to the St. Paul City Council, dies at 100

Ruby Hunt, the woman who steered the creation of St. Paul’s home rule charter and went on to become the third woman ever to serve on the St. Paul City Council, has died at the age of 100.

A native of St. Paul, Hunt became one of the first women to assume leadership roles in local politics and stayed engaged in local politics for years after she left office.

“She was a class act all the way through,” said Joseph Errigo, the former president and CEO of housing nonprofit CommonBond Communities.

The 1942 valedictorian of Monroe High School went to work for the Corps of Engineers as an office clerk in Panama after the outbreak of World War II. There Hunt met her husband, Richard, a colleague in the Corps. They married in Panama in 1944 and returned to St. Paul where they raised their family.

Her daughter Jane Hunt said her mother, who died of natural causes Saturday, was a strong figure whose example cleared a path for her three daughters and three foster daughters.

“We didn’t grow up thinking there was anything we couldn’t do,” Jane said. “Nothing was actually said but I think because Ruby was such a strong person we thought we could do whatever we want.”

Hunt took to civic life and became president of the St. Paul Parent Teacher Association, then the St. Paul League of Women Voters.

Her political powers rising, Hunt became chair of the St. Paul Charter Commission, which presided over the creation of the city’s home rule charter enacted in 1972. It created a “strong-mayor” form of government that sought to end a period of cronyism within City Hall.

With the new system in place, Hunt ran for political office and won, becoming the third women to serve on the St. Paul City Council. She stayed there for 10 years, then successfully ran for a seat on the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, serving 12 years.

Hunt’s interest in government continued with her role in changing the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center from a public institution to a private one, now known as Regions Hospital.

When former St. Paul City Council Member Patrick Roedler started a Friday lunch group in the late 1990s for St. Paul public servants, journalists, judges and power brokers, Hunt was there. The group still meets to this day. Hunt, a longtime participant in the group, was known for her institutional memory of St. Paul politics, said John Mannillo, a longtime downtown St. Paul developer.

“She would sit there and talk to everybody and whenever we wanted accurate history, Ruby was the one,” he said.

She also served with other groups, including the Port Authority, the Metropolitan Airports Commission and on the boards of what was then St. Joseph’s Hospital, Health Partners and the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library.

Jane, her daughter, said that Hunt continued to stay engaged in local politics until her death, whether it was encouraging the other residents of her retirement home to register to vote or cheering when the St. Paul City Council this year became an all-female board.

Hunt survived by daughters Lynn, Lee and Jane; and foster daughters Joy Perez, Gisele Hayes and Terry Link; three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Jan. 17 at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 Snelling Ave. S., St. Paul. Visitation begins at noon.