Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Mary Ella Smith, an elementary school teacher who was Mayor Harold Washington’s companion for more than 20 years and became his fiancee the year he was elected to his first term, died at 80 in her Washington Park neighborhood home Thursday after a brief illness, her family said.

“We were all part of the same family for over 50 years, but she was a very, very private person,” said her sister-in-law, Luthetis Carey. “Even when the mayor was living, she was private. She did public appearances, but it wasn’t her preference.”

Smith was born in Cook County Hospital and grew up in Chicago. Her father was a Pullman porter. She attended Northwestern University, taking public transportation to the Evanston campus from her home on the South Side until receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1958, her family said.

At around that time she met Washington, who also was a member of the Third Ward Young Democrats Organization. “She was very much an intellectual and very politically savvy,” said Smith’s niece, Tracye Smith.

She taught in Chicago Public Schools for more than 30 years, most of them at Reavis Elementary in Kenwood, her niece said.

Smith and Washington were engaged in 1983 but never married. Washington died in office in 1987.

She remained active with the Harold Washington Foundation, which she had helped start when he was still in office, her niece said. The foundation focuses on literacy and the arts.

Smith is survived by a brother, Edward.

There will be no services.

[email protected]

Twitter @marwaeltagouri