Markowitz, Judy
Few women in McLean County history have had a greater impact on our community than Judy Markowitz. Born on February 21, 1938 in Bloomington, Illinois, to David and Gertrude Stern, Judy Rose Stern grew up in a Jewish family known for its furniture store, Stern’s Furniture Co., on North Main Street in downtown Bloomington.
A graduate from Bloomington High School, Judy once described her younger self as an “energetic, outgoing redheaded leader.” She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Northwestern University, and taught first grade for seven years in Dayton, OH, Boston, MA, and Chicago. When she was 24 years old, she embarked on a year-long trip around the world. In November 1962, while teaching English in Japan, Judy was contacted by Bloomington Mayor Robert McGraw asking if she would travel to Asahikawa on the northern island of Hokkaido to help jumpstart a city sister program. More than half a century later, Bloomington and Asahikawa remain active participants in this international program of peace.
Judy also earned a reputation as a successful career woman, this at a time when women were still gaining acceptance in the business world. From 1982 to 1992, she served as WJBC AM 1230’s promotion coordinator, and in that capacity helped organize the “Debt of Honor/Welcome Home Vietnam Vets” parade. In 1992, she became a small business owner by establishing Judy Tours, a Bloomington travel agency.
Never one to rest on past laurels, Judy made her biggest mark in politics. In 1980 she was appointed to the Bloomington Planning Commission. After joining the Kiwanis Club in 1987 as one of the first female members, Judy decided to run for city council and was elected to represent Ward 5 in 1989, becoming one of only five women to serve on the council in its first 147 years. In 1997, after serving two terms on the Bloomington City Council, she ran for mayor, defeating the 12-year incumbent, Jesse Smart, with 56 percent of the vote. She won re-election in 2001, this time garnering a remarkable 82 percent of the votes cast. She was Bloomington’s first and only woman and first Jewish person to serve as mayor.
One of Judy’s top priorities was the revitalization of Bloomington’s historic downtown. During the city’s sesquicentennial celebration, she donated the popular Abraham Lincoln bench, located on the plaza of the McLean County Museum of History, in memory of her family. “After all,” she related, “growing up as a child of that downtown, I knew what it once had been, and I had visions of what it might again become.” Accordingly, two of her signature mayoral achievements were the development of U.S. Cellular Coliseum (she acted as the tie-breaking council vote clearing the way for its construction) and the purchase and renovation of the Scottish Rite Temple, now known as the Bloomington Center for Performing on Arts. Today, the Coliseum (known as Grossinger Motors Arena now) and the BCPA serve as cornerstones of a culturally reborn city center.
In October 2002, Judy also cast the tie-breaking vote that enabled the City Council to approve a milestone measure protecting residents from discrimination based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation. During the council meeting she made an emotional plea based on personal experience. “When I was a young girl my family bought a home in an area that didn’t want Jews,” she said. “I don’t think you know until you are discriminated against … what it feels like to be not wanted and not accepted.”
As mayor, Judy loved acting as a role model before impressionable youth—especially girls and young women. She recalled being asked by an elementary school teacher to share with students “what a mayor does.” Upon entering the classroom in one of her trademark brightly colored business suits, she declared: “This is what a mayor looks like!”
A tireless community leader, Judy was a founding member of the Prairie Cities Soccer League, twice president of the Moses Montefiore Congregation board of trustees, named YWCA “Woman of Distinction” in 1994, and served in the inaugural class of the influential Leadership McLean County program. In 2013, Judy was honored as a History Maker by the McLean County Museum of History.
Judy had two sons from her first marriage: Ian Craig Harrison and Scott Stern Harrison. She married Bloomington attorney Robert Markowitz in 1975 and they were married for 32 years before his death in 2007.
Judy Markowitz passed away on February 15, 2021. Her vivacious personality, high energy, and willingness to stand up for the principles in which she believed made her a strong leader, one that Bloomington will never forget.