Woody Wins – Election Day 1965 & 1967

Well, it’s Election Day 2019.

I’m going to be busy, as I’m one of those volunteer poll workers who sit at a table and processes voters, asking them for a form of I.D., etc. It’s an interesting way to spend 15 hours (although every time I do it, I tell myself that it’s the last time).

Anyway, today the blog looks back at Election Day 1965. On that day, Mayor Woodrow “Woody” Mathna was re-elected, to his third term as Mayor. (I covered his victory in 1963 when he won his second term here.)

But back to 1965. The Journal photographer apparently stuck to Mathna like glue on Election Night, taking the series of photos shown below depicting his emotions during the evening.

From the November 3, 1965 Journal

Mathna’s victory also made the first panel of Gene Patrick’s "The Passing Scene” comic strip on November 6, 1965. I always liked Gene's simple caricature of the Mayor. The comic also shows that it was a tough election for getting anything passed that was going to cost the taxpayers more money.

From the November 6, 1965 Journal

I can see now why it seemed that Mathna was Mayor during most of my childhood. He was Lorain Mayor from January 1962 until January 1972.

Here’s the “Passing Scene” from two years later when Mathna won his fourth term.

From the November 11, 1967 Journal

Boy, that's an unflattering caricature of Joseph Zahorec. But he went on to enjoy a long career as Lorain Mayor, from January 1972 until January 1980, and then again from January 1984 until his tragic death in a car accident on New Year's Eve 1984.

And of course we also remember that Zahorec owned, operated and performed at the Lincoln Park Ballroom from the mid-1950s until the early 1960s.