At the time, it was easy to dismiss Alice Doyle's pesky headaches. Even as the pain worsened within days of Doyle's 1985 election to the post of Elmhurst city clerk, the explanation seemed clear.

But Alice Doyle never made it to her own victory party. In an ironic and downright lousy case of timing, Doyle suffered a brain aneurysm on the very night of her election. Not until three months later, when Doyle found herself twisted in a fetal position at a local rehabilitation hospital, did she learn that she had won.