NEW BRUNSWICK – Pat Sheehan, whose eight years as the city’s first and only woman mayor were marked by unflinching leadership and clear-minded decision-making in the face of turbulent times and frequent challenges to her authority, has died. Sheehan was 91.

She had battled lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for several years, said her daughter and former longtime New Brunswick Councilwoman, Betsy Garlatti.

Word of her death Monday night after a brief illness began to spread across New Brunswick, where city leaders recalled how she and four other political newcomers – dubbed the New Five – staged a stunning upset at the polls in 1967 to upend the long-entrenched regime.

“On behalf of the City of New Brunswick, I extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends

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