His Last Funeral

Flowers were heaped high, cops stood around the casket, and hundreds of mourners trooped by. It was a fine funeral; and Jasper McLevy. who was fond of funerals and used to attend three or four a week, would have enjoyed it. But this was Jasper's own: the man who had served almost a quarter-century as the Socialist mayor of Bridgeport. Conn., was dead at 84.

McLevy (pronounced McLeevy) was a peculiar institution in U.S. politics. A handsome although notably untidy man, he was a Socialist by label, but he had the political instincts of a Democratic ward boss and the economic views of a conservative Republican. The son of a Scottish roofer, he quit school after the eighth grade, followed his father's trade and became a Socialist after reading Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. He ran for mayor nine times before he finally made the grade in 1933. Bridgeport, a drab industrial city on Long Island Sound, was then nearly bankrupt. McLevy fought school expansion, kept city salaries low (his own never topped $9,300), held down taxes as long as he could. Much of the city's business was outlined only in his own scribbled notes, but under his regime Bridgeport achieved a triple-A credit rating.

The Answer Is No. Mayor McLevy's system was to say no to almost every spending scheme. A P.T.A. delegation would come to see him and be met with a monologue: "I know what you want. You know I know what you want. You want a school, right? The answer is no. The interview is over." With that, he would barge out of the office, cool off over a cup of tea.

McLevy lived as frugally as did Bridgeport. When the usual police-driven squad car was first offered for his use, he barked: "Get that damn thing out of here." He wore the same shapeless brown fedora for some 15 years. His frayed shirts were usually smudged, his brown or grey suits baggy, his high-laced shoes were scuffed. His only sartorial concern was that all aldermen wear straw hats, white gloves and carry dime-store flags in the Memorial Day parade each year. They did--and still do.

A Reluctant Yes. While running Bridgeport with genuine affection (he opposed urban renewal, recalls a longtime aide, "because he resented the thought that anything in Bridgeport needed to be renewed--that would mean it wasn't perfect"), McLevy yearned for bigger things. In all he ran for public office 54 times in 58 years, including 15 times for Governor, twice for the U.S. Senate. He was always defeated for higher office, and finally even Bridgeport turned him down. The city's 25,000 schoolchildren desperately needed new buildings: its housing shortage could no longer be denied. Reluctantly, McLevy raised taxes in 1957. Ironically, the voters then turned against him, and he was unseated by 161 votes.

At his funeral, McLevy lay in a sharply pressed suit, his hair newly trimmed. "He does look much neater dead than alive.'' said one mourner with deep affection. "Jasper never cared much about how he looked--only what he stood for." McLevy would have agreed.

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