Ald. Scheketa Hart-Burns, the first African-American City Council member in Aurora’s history who spent more than 32 years on the council, died Monday morning.

“Today is a huge loss for the city of Aurora,” said Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin. “It’s a loss for our residents, for the City Council members, for the city government. She has been a part of all that for more than 40 years.”

Details of her death and funeral arrangements have not been announced yet. Many people in town heard about her death during Monday afternoon’s Juneteenth flag-raising celebration downtown, an event she would normally have taken part in.

Clayton Muhammad, Aurora’s chief communications and equity officer, broke up as he announced her death to the audience of more than 100. Irvin quickly pointed out that “she was a mother, a sister.”

“We called her the dean of aldermen,” he said.

The mayor also announced that the flag-raising would from here on in be known as the Scheketa Hart-Burns Juneteenth Flag-Raising Celebration.

“But it’s also a day to celebrate what she’s done,” he said.

Hart-Burns, 68, was first elected to the City Council in 1991 and has served the 7th Ward since. She was a longtime chair of the Government Operations Committee, which was renamed the Public Health, Safety and Transportation Committee in recent years.

Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, a 38-year veteran of the City Council, sat next to Hart-Burns for 32 of those years.

“For 32 years straight she has been at my left elbow and I’ve been at her right elbow,” he said Monday. “I’m beyond being sad, I’m shocked. We expected her to be OK. She is such an institution in our community.”

Saville called Hart-Burns “an aggressive neighborhood activist” who fought for the neighborhoods in her ward.

“She was a voice for people in the community,” Saville said.

Hart-Burns often spent ward funds to buy and tear down vacant or problem houses in her ward, even replacing them with parks. She was also active in her church, Great Mount Olive COGIC Ministries on the East Side. She would give a benediction at the start of each City Council meeting.

State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, who attended the Juneteenth event in Aurora Monday, was an Aurora City Council member from the 3rd Ward during Hart-Burns’ years on the council.

She remembered Hart-Burns welcoming her as a fledgling City Council member, and also introducing her to civil rights crusader Marie Wilkinson.

“She was an icon,” Kifowit said. “She was all about her love of people, her love of the community, her love of Aurora.”

slord@tribpub.com