In 1975 housewife Judy Petrucci ran for town trustee of Lyons, Illinois, and lost. In 1977 and 1979, 36-year-old college student Judy Petrucci ran again and lost. In 1981 law school student Petrucci ran for mayor—and lost. In 1987 attorney Judy Petrucci was elected a trustee of Lyons. Two years later, she became Mayor Petrucci by a landslide. After 14 years of astonishing persistence, Petrucci and the reformers who have banded around her are in charge of Lyons at last.

Lyons was once a magnet for sleaze-seekers from nearby Chicago. With its 43 bars and five big strip joints, the tiny town was where the action was. It was also where the Mob was, a fact that frightened most residents into accepting the status quo. To a lot of residents it was perfectly normal to have no supermarkets but umpteen businesses hawking GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS.

Petrucci started giving her town a searching look after a remark by her seven-year-old daughter, Gina. When told that her Great-Aunt Mary had been an entertainer, Gina made the obvious connection, given her surroundings. Horrified, she asked, "You mean Auntie Mary used to dance naked?" Petrucci asked for a crackdown on the all-night action, but the long-time mayor and his cohorts weren't about to upset the cozy relationship they had with owners of the taverns, liquor stores and strip joints just because some housewife had a bee in her bonnet. When Petrucci tried to speak at meetings of the town board of trustees, they told her that citizens were not allowed to talk without a prior appointment. The mayor ridiculed Petrucci at public meetings, once sneering, "You're not a lawyer. What do you know?"

Petrucci thought about that. She was a high-school graduate, a mother, married to a toolmaker. After she lost her first election, she realized she needed legal help to clean Lyons up. With the loving support of her husband Fred, who took on the household chores, Judy Petrucci set out to become the lawyer she needed. Carrying a full course load and maintaining an A average, she still managed to be wife, mother and active public citizen. All through college she maintained a critical presence in the town, running for election with such frequency that Gina (by then a teenager) felt humiliated and asked, "How can you lose all the time? Don't you have any pride?" Her mom responded, "When you believe in something you just have to keep fighting for it."

Over the years Petrucci inspired other citizens to join the fight. By 1984 enough voters were on board to pass a referendum that closed the bars at 2 AM and kept them closed—for at least six hours. Though there were strong suspicions that town government was corrupt, it was hard for citizens to get through the cloud of secrecy and prove it. When Petrucci finally made it to the "inside," she got access to town records. But she was still slogging uphill—one reform-minded woman against the mayor and his firmly entrenched allies. Enter the FBI with "Operation Safebet," a probe that indicted 76 people, shutting down bars and strip joints behind them. Witnesses in the trials pointed the finger at local politicos, including the mayor.

In 1989, 74% of the voters of Lyons sent Judy Petrucci to the mayor's office and a reform slate to the town's board. Petrucci fired the police chief, the fire chief, the building inspector, the town administrator and the town attorney. She recalled 325 special police badges the mayor had given his cronies. Petrucci then made personal calls on the remaining joints to lay down the new ground rules—no whores, no gambling, no under-age drinking. She opened city government to the scrutiny of the public for the first time, publishing agendas in advance and opening the floor to citizens at all public meetings, no appointments necessary.

The citizens of Lyons are proud of their hometown for the first time in a generation. Property values are up, and new businesses, legitimate ones, are coming in. And Gina Petrucci doesn't worry any more about her stubborn mother's pride.

Update: In 1997, Petrucci was once again elected village trustee and served a term. In 2005, at 63, she won a spot on the Brookfield-Lyons District 103 school board, served as president for a year and was re-elected in 2009. She stepped down after suffering a seizure while presenting a case in court in 2010. She died in 2011.