1,000 Attend Funeral Mass for Ferraro’s Wife

An overflow congregation of more than 1,000 attended a requiem Mass on Monday morning for Margaret Hart Ferraro, a onetime Broadway showgirl who became a successful businesswoman and was the wife of Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro.

“She was an independent woman long before it became fashionable,� the councilman’s nephew, Robert C. Baker, said in his eulogy.

“She was exceedingly smart, and her sense of humor and insight into people and situations was legendary,� Baker said. “She was not the least bit bashful about sharing her opinions with others.�

The Mass at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church in Hancock Park was celebrated by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who was assisted by Msgr. Jeremiah T. Murphy, Father Patrick J. Cahalan and Father Timothy Cahalane.

The congregation included a host of city and county officials, among them Mayor Richard Riordan, most of John Ferraro’s fellow City Council members, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, City Fire Chief William Bamattre and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

Known as Margie Hart during her storied appearances as a striptease dancer in New York during the 1940s, the renowned and sometimes risque showgirl later moved to Los Angeles and began a successful career in real estate investment, renovating and reselling luxury homes in the Hancock Park area.

Divorcing her then-husband, scriptwriter Seaman Block Jacobs, in 1955, she soon became a fixture in the Los Angeles social scene, hosting gala parties at her spacious home in Bel-Air.

She met the councilman during the 1970s, and after dating for several years, they married in 1982.

Friends said the Ferraros were inseparable. Despite a stroke that left her partially paralyzed not long after they were wed, she relied on the strong supportive arm of her former football player husband to attend numerous social and civic events.

“They were elevated by each other’s presence,� Baker said.

In recent years, Margaret Ferraro’s health had continued to deteriorate. Hospitalized two weeks ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she died last Wednesday.

She is survived by her husband, two children, five grandchildren and a sister.