Former Philadelphia council woman dies
Friday, March 12th, 2010
A former Philadelphia City Councilwoman has died. A colleague remembered a trip that made her either famous – or infamous – in Philadelphia political history.
Former City Councilwoman Ann Land won a special election in 1980 to fill the council seat held by George Schwartz after he was nabbed in the Abscam federal sting. Fellow Councilwoman Joan Krajewski, who was also elected in 1980, remembers how she and Land were dubbed the "Boom Boom Sisters" by Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez seven years later.
"We went to Vegas on a League of Cities, or some convention or another, and when you are in Vegas it's pretty hard not to play a slot machine," Krajewski said. "Oh yeah we did, but not to an extent that we left everything else go. So we did enjoy ourselves, yes."
Krajewski says Land will be remembered for working hard for the people she represented.
She was unseated in 1991 by now Mayor Michael Nutter. Land was 77. She died Tuesday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at her home in Sea Isle City.