Amy Eshleman is the first lady of the city of Chicago. She is best known as the wife of current Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Amy is a former public library assistant commissioner turned early childhood education activist.
Amy has been married to her mayor’s wife, Lori, since at least 2001. They now have one adopted daughter, Vivian. Eshleman stands out even when the spotlight is on her partner, owing to her height.
She also has her own story to tell. Aside from her wife’s political fame, learn about her life. Also, read a slightly expanded version of her past life, the start of her relationship with Lightfoot, and beyond.
Eshleman, Amy Is She White From Her Childhood?
Amy, Lightfoot’s wife, was born on December 31, 1961, in Sterling, Illinois, and has lived in Chicago since 1991. She is the eldest child among her siblings. While she has yet to reveal her ethnicity, the Chicagoan has previously stated that her family is from the Midwest.
According to the Sterling Schools Foundation website, Lori’s wife was a student-athlete at Sterling High School who played tennis and basketball.
She was, in fact, an avid basketball and tennis player. She graduated in 1980 and was a member of the school’s 1977 girls’ basketball team, which won the state championship for the first time in Illinois.
Amy graduated from Miami University in Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in history and worked on two congressional staff from 1984 to 1988.
Eshleman, Amy I was a public library assistant.
Eshleman appears to have worked as the assistant commissioner of the Chicago Public Library for nearly two decades, from 1994 to 2012. It has the fifth-largest public library collection in the country.
She worked there from 1994 to 2012, during the tenure of former Chicago Public Library (CPL) Commissioner Mary A. Dempsey.
Mary A. Dempsey, Eshleman’s former boss at the CPL, contributed $64,776 to Lightfoot’s mayoral campaign.
Eshleman also assisted in the development of YOUmedia while working at the Public Library. It was a digital media center for teens that began in 2009 at the Harold Washington branch of the Chicago Public Library. It also provided outreach and engagement to teenagers. The program was a success, and similar versions were launched in several states.
Former President (Barack) Obama praised the initiatives as well. He cited (the) YOUmedia digital space for teens as an example of a new and innovative learning environment that the country should replicate across its states.
Currently, over 12 CPL locations have a YOUmedia center. Eshleman is mentioned in a 2013 article by the Remake Learning network after Youmedia assisted in the national expansion of a similar Learning Labs program.
What Is Amy Doing Right Now?
Amy left the CPL in 2012 and now works as an education consultant, according to her LinkedIn profile.
When her husband, Lightfoot, was elected as the city’s 56th mayor in April 2019, she became the city’s, first lady.
Eshleman and Deputy Mayor for Education and Human Services Sybil Madison launched the My Chi. My Future. initiative in March 2020. The former’s wife, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, is running a youth-focused campaign. It hopes to connect young people with opportunities that are tailored to their interests and mentorship, putting them on the path to success.
Eshleman, Amy Lori Lightfoot, the mayor’s wife
Eshleman and Lightfoot have been married for nearly 20 years. They married on the first day that same-sex marriages were legal in Illinois.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Eshleman discussed why the couple chose to marry when they did, as well as the fear of coming out.
“You have no idea what your life will be like. You want certain things for yourself, and falling in love, starting a family, and doing all of those things were all very important to us. It felt huge to be able to marry on that day.”
stated the former collegiate basketball player.
Eshleman and her wife, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have a preteen daughter and live in Logan Square. Vivian Lightfoot, their 13-year-old daughter, is their only child.
Was Lori Lightfoot unfaithful to Amy Eshleman?
During the summer of 2021, there were rumors on social media that Lori would resign due to an alleged cheating scandal involving another woman.
There were rumors on social media that Chicago Mayor Lori was about to resign after some unidentified sources caught her cheating on her wife, First Lady Amy.
The gossip was sparked by a now-deleted tweet from Chicago civil rights advocate Ja’Mal Green.
“In a stunning end to her mayorship, Lori Lightfoot is resigning tomorrow. WOW,”
Green had tweeted about it.
However, the cheating theory emerged only after another tweet surfaced. It claimed Lightfoot resigned after a source caught her cheating on Eshleman with another woman at an Elmhurst hotel paid for by the city of Chicago.
According to the outlet, the woman Lori was having an affair with had a boyfriend who had been arrested for possessing a weapon, and she had asked Lightfoot to “take care” of it.
Eshleman and Lori fought physically?!?!
The situation allegedly escalated to the point where Amy Eshleman allegedly beat her politician wife after discovering the cheating.
According to one Twitter account, police responded to a domestic dispute at the Lightfoot-Eshleman home, where they encountered their daughter, who informed them that “my moms are fighting.” The stories, however, received no credible verification, and no official statement was issued by the Mayor or her wife, Amy.
Lightfoot’s alleged resignation, on the other hand, sparked outrage on Twitter, with many expressing their displeasure with the mayor’s decision to resign over a cheating scandal.
Instead, the online community pointed out that Lori should have resigned due to previous unfortunate events. Some of them included the misappropriation of COVID relief funds to the Chicago Police Department, the cover-up of a botched raid on Anjanette Young, and Adam Toledo’s fatal shooting.
Amy or Lori, who is wealthier?
Lori, as the more prominent figure, undoubtedly wins the debate over who is wealthier between her and her wife, Amy. Even though the democrat is in office to serve the community, Eshleman’s 59-year-old wife has been widely reported to be a millionaire.
To get a sense of her wealth or income statistics, it’s worth noting that Lightfoot allegedly earns between $400,000 and $500,000 from her mayoral jobs.
Lori reportedly earned more than $497,000 from a law firm during her first year in office (2019), according to her tax return, which was published in March 2021 by the Chicago Tribune.
Based on the math and figures, Amy’s net worth pales compared to her politician partner’s seven-figure fortune.
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