Dede Hall, former Fort Wayne city councilwoman and part of the local family of restaurateurs, died Monday, her family said. She was 62.
Her son Ben Hall, manager of the Gas House restaurant, said she was diagnosed with colon cancer in spring 2009 and died after a three-year fight with the disease. Ben Hall said the family did not want to discuss his mother's death publicly.
"No one's interested in making a big deal of it publicly," Ben Hall said. "That wasn't Mom's style."
Dede Hall, a political novice at the time, was elected to City Council as a Republican in 1995 and served one term. She lost her 1999 re-election bid to former Democratic Councilman Tim Pape.
Council legislative assistant Molly McCray, who worked under Hall for two years, said Hall kept a low profile politically because she was more interested in serving taxpayers than making public appearances.
"She looked out for her constituents. She knew what she wanted and generally didn't back down if it was a big enough issue," McCray said. "There are some politicians who like to show up everywhere so they can be seen. That just wasn't her, to be seen in her elected capacity."
While on council, Hall clashed with at-large Republican Councilman John Crawford over smoking restrictions, which he supported and she opposed, and helped lead opposition to a south-side landfill for hazardous waste that ended up closing in 1998.
