Mary McComber’s first foray into politics was in the mid-1990s when the Minnesota Department of Transportation began buying and razing homes in Lower Oak Park Heights to build a new St. Croix River bridge.
“She loved her city,” said her daughter Laura Brown. “She wanted better, especially when all that stuff was happening with the bridge originally. They started demolishing houses, and my mom was, like, ‘You’re not going to keep going with the rest of the neighborhood,’ so she fought for her neighborhood. She fought for the people that it was going to be affecting.”
McComber, the mayor of Oak Park Heights, died Monday morning at her home in Oak Park Heights of complications related to Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 71.
MnDOT ended up building the bridge upstream of the originally proposed location, and McComber ended up being one of the biggest supporters of the bridge project, Brown said, but it was a difficult decision for her.
“I remember her just feeling torn because it was coming through her neighborhood, and half of our neighborhood is gone,” she said. “All those relationships that she had with those individuals, she still fought for them to be provided for, to go and live in a different area and have the resources available. She was not done fighting for the people. I mean, yes, she pushed for the bridge, but she still made sure that things were fair and equitable for those people that were affected. I remember her constantly on the phone pushing, saying, ‘No, no, that’s not acceptable. We are going to make sure that they’re taken care of.’”
After serving 12 years on the Oak Park Heights City Council, McComber ran for mayor in 2012 and defeated the incumbent, then-Mayor David Beaudet, who opposed the project.
“The Stillwater Lift Bridge is old,” she told the Pioneer Press at the time. “I understand it will be safe for pedestrian traffic, but as for its life span for vehicle traffic, it’s past its time. It was not built for today’s volume of traffic.”
The St. Croix River bridge, which opened in 2017, would not have been completed without McComber’s “advocacy, tenacity and perseverance,” city officials said in a press release. “This bridge is now firmly part of our region’s fabric as its four lanes and pedestrian crossing serves tens of thousands of people each day.”
‘Committed local leadership’
McComber, a retired interior decorator, threw herself into municipal government after she took office in 2001.
She frequently testified at the State Capitol and served in countless leadership roles and on numerous committees and panels at dozens of organizations, including the National League of Cities, the Minnesota Mayors Association, the League of Minnesota Cities, Metro Cities, Minnesota Women in City Government, Women in Municipal Government (National League of Cities), Regional Council of Mayors, the Minnesota Association of Small Cities and the Coalition of Utility Cities Task Force.
League of Minnesota Cities Executive Director Luke Fischer said McComber “embodied the very essence of committed local leadership.”
“Through her years at Oak Park Heights and her involvement in many, many civic organizations, Mary embodied a belief that service matters,” Fischer said. “Mary made a difference in her community, in Minnesota, and nationally.”
In 2023, McComber received the National League of Cities Women in Municipal Government Leadership Award.
Oak Park Heights Mayor Mary McComber died Monday, May 26, 2025, of complications related to stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. McComber was photographed here in 2023 after she won the Women in Municipal Government Leadership Award from the National League of Cities. (Courtesy of the City of Oak Park Heights)
Cap O’Rourke, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Small Cities, wrote one of the letters recommending her for the national award. McComber, he wrote, was a “tireless advocate and enthusiastic cheerleader for all of local government, but particularly, Minnesota’s small cities (population under 5,000) – across the entire state; both rural and urban.”
McComber “spends an unbelievable amount of time to research the issues, listen to her community, and work towards a solution,” Sen. Karin Housley, R-Oak Park Heights, wrote in her letter of recommendation.
McComber received the C.C. Ludwig Award from the League of Minnesota Cities in 2016. The award, named for a former League executive director, is considered to be the League’s highest award for elected officials. Recipients are chosen for their vision, statesmanship and unwavering commitment to the public good, according to League officials.
‘Spunk, sass and sheer drive’
While she was proud to receive such awards, “her true love was the well-being of Oak Park Heights,” Brown said. “She just had this incredible amount of determination, spunk, sass and sheer drive for wanting better for not just the city, but individuals as a whole. She just had that people passion.”
Deputy Mayor Chuck Dougherty said McComber made an incredible impact on the city, and always prioritized the needs of her constituents – “no matter the issue or time of day.”
“She just really took her position to heart and did everything she could for the people of Oak Park Heights and the greater community,” Dougherty said. “She worked hard and tirelessly for that. She really cared for our community and our employees.”
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McComber loved all city employees – “from the brand-new police officer we just hired to the 38-year veteran,” said City Administrator Jacob Rife said. “She loved everyone at City Hall and cared so deeply about our employees. And it was mutual. We loved her, too, and she’s going to be greatly missed.”
Mary Murphy was born in Chicago and moved to Burnsville in 1979. She married Bruce Bernhjelm in 1970; they divorced in 1991. The couple had four children; their daughter Jennifer died at childbirth.
In 1992, she met Don McComber while country line dancing in Burnsville. The couple moved to Oak Park Heights in 1994 and got married in 1995.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her three children, Lisa Bernhjelm-Corblick, Laura Brown and Brett Bernhjelm, and 12 grandchildren.
The funeral service will be 10 a.m. Friday at Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center in Stillwater, with visitation from 4-8 p.m. Thursday at the center.
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