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Jo McKenzie enters Middlesex Superior Court to affirm in the manslaughter… (MICHAEL McANDREWS, Hartford…)

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April 27, 2012|By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, ckeating@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

Jo McKenzie, the cape-wearing grande amazon of the accompaniment Republican Party for added than 30 years, died Friday afterwards several years of crumbling health. She was 80.

Known as "Mama Jo,'' McKenzie was the best bright appearance in accompaniment GOP circles and able the aiguille of her ability as a acquaintance of Republican Gov.John G. Rowlandand his wife, Patty. McKenzie spent nights at the governor's abode back Rowland was still a accepted governor, and she again bought a ample home aloof bottomward the artery on Prospect Avenue in Hartford's West End.

McKenzie's afterlife was accepted by her above assistant, Daniel R. Moreland, who is a agent for the family. She died affably at her abode in Madison with her three daughters by her side.

In 2007, in crumbling bloom at the age of 75, McKenzie stepped bottomward afterwards added than 16 years on the Republican National Committee and added than 30 years as a accoutrement in accompaniment GOP politics.

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McKenzie embodied the Rowland administering as the $84,000-a-year arch of protocol, ambassador of the governor's mansion, and abettor to the aboriginal lady. She was generally apparent at both the Capitol and the abode with her abutting friend, co-chief of agents Peter Ellef, who served a federal bastille appellation on bribery accuse as allotment of the aspersion that would accelerate Rowland to prison.

A above restaurant buyer with a aesthetic aftertaste for able wine and spirits, McKenzie fabricated abiding every detail was covered during parties at the governor's mansion. Need an able piano player? Ask Mama Jo. Need the finest caterer? She would know.

A ambitious restaurateur in her heyday, McKenzie operated the four-star Copper Beech Inn in Ivoryton for eight years and again Robert Henry's in New Haven. Robert Henry's, now accepted as the Union League Cafe, is endemic by McKenzie's earlier daughter, Robin, and her husband, a chef.

At Robert Henry's in the mid-1980s, McKenzie activated the dress cipher that she was aggravating to advance at the flush restaurant abreast the New Haven Green.

"She told Frank Sinatra he had to leave unless he put on a tie,'' said Moreland, a abutting ancestors acquaintance who formed with McKenzie at the Capitol. "He left.''

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Known for her large, apparel adornment and faculty of style, McKenzie endemic about 30 pairs of eyeglasses. She remained stylish, alike while advancement a active agenda of daytime affairs and late-night parties.

"She alone appropriate a brace of hours of sleep,'' Moreland said Friday. "She'd deathwatch up like she'd slept 16 hours.''

True to form, McKenzie planned every detail — alike for her post-funeral luncheon. The ancestors abstruse that McKenzie had larboard accounting instructions for the bologna that should accommodate "only the finest aliment and the flashiest of desserts,'' Moreland said. There allegation be stemware and silver, but no daisies or carnations, according to the instructions.

Enjoying about absolute admission to the Rowlands, McKenzie declared the governor as ``the son I never had'' and referred to Patty as her fourth daughter.

But McKenzie was acclaimed amid political assembly continued afore her affiliation with the Rowlands, accepting been the aboriginal woman adopted to advance the Connecticut GOP in 1979.

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``She was a able woman in the 1970s back backroom was a male-dominated world,'' George Gallo, a above accompaniment chairman, said back McKenzie stepped bottomward from the RNC in 2007. ``She blazed new trails.''

She was abutting to above U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney of Fairfield and already said they were "like brother and sister.'' She was additionally abutting to Fred Biebel, a high-level Connecticut Republican who was benumbed in the car with then-President Gerald Ford on Oct. 14, 1975, back the auto was hit by a motorist in city Hartford. Through her ties to Biebel, McKenzie got complex in allowance plan the 1980 commencement of admission President Ronald Reagan.

McKinney's son, John, stood on the Senate attic Friday to acclaim McKenzie and alarm for a moment of silence.

"I aboriginal met Mama Jo in the aboriginal 1970s as a adolescent boy,'' said McKinney, who is now the Senate Republican leader. "She was a admirable woman, consistently with a laugh. She had an absurd faculty of style.

"I do anamnesis one cruise to the Republican National Convention bottomward in Houston, Texas. I was actual adolescent at the time, and I aloof bethink belief of the liquor carts on the airplanes active out of booze with Mama Jo arch the charge. … It's a little sad for me. She was actual abutting to my father. Mama Jo was one of those bodies I enjoyed seeing about my abode as a adolescent boy. Although she was a Republican through and through, I anticipate we all ache the casual of a acceptable person.

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Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said she met McKenzie at the Max City restaurant in Hartford and Jo was cutting a boa. Back McKenzie angled bottomward to accost Hartford Mayor Mike Peters, the boa bent fire. It was bound put out and no one was injured.

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