PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The former president of Philadelphia City Council has died after a brief illness.
Anna Verna served on City Council for 36 years. She was elected president of City Council by her colleagues in 1999 and became the first — and so far, only — woman to hold that position.
Democratic committee chair Bob Brady used one word to describe Verna: “Class. She was the classiest lady, probably too classy to be in politics.”
But Verna had politics in her blood. She was first elected in 1975. She ran for and won her father’s seat after he died, representing South Philadelphia.
Mayor Jim Kenney was a council member at the time, and he remembers Verna as a gracious but firm leader.
“She wasn’t a person who would yell and scream and demand things, but she always kind of got you to come around to her way of thinking,” he said.
Current Council President Darrell Clarke said in a statement that Verna taught him the importance of patience and confidentiality.
“You knew she was always there for you,” he said.
When she retired in 2012, Verna was the longest-serving council member in the city’s history and the longest-serving employee, having worked in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office before joining council.
She told KYW Newsradio at the time that politics was hard for women when she first ran, and there were a lot of men who thought she shouldn’t be there — so she worked extremely hard, day and night.
“I wanted to prove that they were absolutely, totally wrong,” she said.
Verna was 90 years old.