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Martin H. Kennelly (born: August 11, 1887; died: November 29, 1961; buried in Calvary Cemetery) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1947–1955) for the Democratic Party.
Kennelly was born in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, the son of a packing house worker. He served in the U. S. Army during World War I with the rank of Captain. After the war he returned to Chicago and entered the moving and storage business, and lived on north end of Lake Shore Drive.
When the city administration of Edward J. Kelly was threatened with defeat by corruption, scandal and Kelly's liberal integrationist policies the Cook County Democratic Party Machine responded by dumping Kelly and slating the "reformist" Kennelly in his place. Kennelly returned to the Bridgeport neighborhood and ran for mayor from an apartment in the predominantly Irish American working-class community of his childhood. Kennelly was elected Mayor of Chicago in 1947 and re-elected in 1951.
Kennelly proved to be too independent and reform oriented for his regular Democratic Party sponsors and was dumped by the party bosses at the 1955 endorsement slating in favor of Richard J. Daley. Daley soundly defeated Kennelly in the 1955 Democratic Primary and went on to election in 1955.
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