Los Angeles News

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Nancy MacNeil Daly Riordan, longtime philanthropist and wife of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, has died. She was 68.

Daly died Friday in St. Louis while traveling back to Los Angeles from New York in a motor home with her three adult children, according to the Los Angeles Times. She had been battling pancreatic cancer.

Villaraigosa issued a statement saying, "The city of Los Angeles has lost one of its most dedicated and passionate philanthropists. Nancy Daly spent her life advocating for children and ensuring that our future generations are not forgotten.

"Her commitment to children -- especially foster children -- across the country led to the establishment of countless organizations, committees and even legislation for increased funding for children's rights. Nancy was a friend and inspiration to us all. She will truly be missed."

Nancy MacNeil was born June 11, 1941, in Tenafly, N.J., and grew up in
Brooklyn, N.Y.

She met entertainment executive Bob Daly while she was a secretary at CBS. They married in 1961 and lived in Brooklyn.

They had a daughter, Linda, in 1966, and two sons Bobby and Brian.

She met Riordan, then a Los Angeles attorney, investment banker and philanthropist, around 1989.

She filed for divorce from Daly in November 1991, and she and Riordan became a couple but did not marry until 1998, according to The Times.

Daly became interested in child advocacy after visiting Los Angeles County's MacLaren Children's Center, which later closed. In 1980, she founded United Friends of the Children, which supported programs for foster children at MacLaren.

In 1984, she helped create the Los Angeles County's Children and Family Services Department and Commission. She served as a member of the commission from its inception until June of 1999 and chaired the commission for two separate terms. She also worked to establish the county's Family Preservation Program and Committee.

When Riordan was elected mayor in 1993, he appointed her to the new city commission on children and families, and she also oversaw the restoration of Getty House, the unofficial mayor's residence in Windsor Square.

Daly also co-founded the Children's Action Network, which sponsors an ongoing series of educational briefings for the entertainment industry with nationally recognized children's experts, and which also serves as a clearinghouse for the industry on children's issues. The network developed national campaigns for immunization and childhood hunger.

On the national level, Daly was appointed to the President's Commission on Children in 1989. The Commission's report, "Beyond Rhetoric," served as a basis for more than fourteen bills in Congress.

In 2002, President George W. Bush invited Daly to the White House for his signing of the re-authorization of the Safe and Stable Families Act, which she had been instrumental in creating during President Bill Clinton's administration.
In 2003, she co-chaired, with former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, a committee to oversee the spending of tobacco tax funds to help send all 4-year-olds in the county to pre-school, and was active in Hertzberg's unsuccessful 2005 campaign for mayor.

In 2007, she and Riordan legally separated.

Daly joined the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2002 and was elected board chair in 2005. She also served on the boards of the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Los Angeles Opera, among others.

Besides her three grown children, she is survived by five grandchildren.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)