San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, a former civil rights attorney who became the first Asian-American to serve in the city’s top post, died early Tuesday at a city hospital at age 65, his office said.
Lee, who had been mayor since 2011, suffered a heart attack while grocery shopping in his neighbourhood, former Mayor Willie Brown told CNN affiliate KPIX that he had been told. Lee’s office didn’t immediately release his cause of death. “I don’t know San Francisco without Ed Lee,” Brown told KPIX. “He clearly had … a lot more to give to the city. I’m going to miss him personally, and I think the city will miss him.”
Lee died at 1:11 a.m. PT at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with relatives, friends and colleagues by his side, city officials said.
