Mourners began paying their respects Wednesday to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco City Hall, where she launched her groundbreaking political career and where she spent a decade as the city’s first female mayor.
Feinstein’s body is lying in state in the City Hall rotunda, with everyone from elected leaders to city residents expected to say goodbye. She died Thursday at her Washington, D.C., home after a series of illnesses.
Sheriff’s deputies closed the City Hall doors fronting Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place just after 8:30 a.m., directing the public to the entrance on Van Ness Avenue.
More than 20 mourners were present when The Standard visited on Wednesday morning after 8 a.m.
Cari Donovan, a lifelong San Franciscan, said Feinstein was a “lioness” who tirelessly fought for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
“She’s always been a figure in my life, and without her work, I wouldn’t be enjoying my life here and my daughter wouldn’t be enjoying the freedoms she has,” Donovan said.
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Donovan held a card she hoped to give to Feinstein’s family as she waited to pay her respects to the late senator.
“It talks about how much of an inspiration she was in my life as a woman,” Donovan said.
Nancy Pelosi, her husband, Paul Pelosi, and members of Dianne Feinstein’s family were also present to pay their respects at City Hall on Wednesday.
Bob Akers was an intern for Feinstein during her time as San Francisco mayor in the 1980s and said he remembers his time working for her fondly.
“She was very kind, a very fair boss,” Akers said.
Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and was board president 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 became acting mayor, and she went on to serve as mayor until 1988.
San Francisco would not be San Francisco without her. She steered the city through the HIV and AIDS crisis, bringing attention to an epidemic ignored by President Ronald Reagan. She also secured federal and private funding to save the city’s iconic cable cars from death by deterioration.
Following Feinstein’s death, Newsom appointed former union leader and Democratic Party insider Laphonza Butler to serve out Feinstein’s term.
Butler is a longtime fundraiser and strategist in the state’s Democratic circles and was the head of EMILY’s List, a national organization that raises money for women candidates who support abortion rights.
Butler is also the first openly LGBTQ+ senator from California.
Though she has never held elective office, Newsom praised her “deep knowledge” of the legislative process and said she was the kind of candidate he would build “if I had to literally design from my imagination.”
This is a developing story.