Maureen Murphy was a politician in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 and a Chairman of the Cook County

Cook County

- Counties :*Cook County, Georgia, US*Cook County, Illinois*Cook County, Minnesota, US*Cook County, New South Wales, Australia*Cook County, New Zealand, one of the former counties of New Zealand on the North Island...

 Republican Party (US) from 2002 to 2004. She was the first woman to hold that position.

Life

Maureen Murphy was a lifelong resident of Evergreen Park, Illinois

Evergreen Park, Illinois

Evergreen Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 25,044 at the 2009 census.-Geography:Evergreen Park is located at . The suburb is surrounded by the city of Chicago on three of its sides, while Oak Lawn and Hometown border it on the west...

. She served on the Evergreen Park High School Board where she was elected in 1982 and as Worth Township Clerk from 1985 to 1989. She was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives

Illinois House of Representatives

The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The state House of Representatives is made of 118 representatives elected from...

 representing Illinois' 36th district from 1993 to 1997; while State Representative, she chaired the House revenue committee. Maureen Murphy also served as Worth Township

Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois

Worth Township is one of thirty townships in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 152,239. It was founded in 1849, when the county voted to subdivide itself into townships.-Geography:...

 Republican Committeeman.

Murphy served as Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party from 2002 to 2004; she was the first woman to hold that position.

She also served as the 1st district Commissioner of the Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

 Board of Review from 1998 to 2007. On November 7, 2006 Murphy was defeated in her bid for reelection losing to Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 Brendan F. Houlihan by a narrow margin of 2%. Maureen was the first woman, first Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

, and first suburban resident to serve in the Cook County Board of Review. Murphy developed lung cancer which would eventually take her life in 2008. She was succeeded by her son Shaun as Worth Township Republican Committeeman. He briefly considered running for his mother's Board of Review seat.