From an Oct. 24, 1950, Tribune editorial marking his death: “He was a good mayor. He did good things for Chicago. There need be no doubt that the machine he bossed was corrupt. It still exists, and can be observed. Ed Kelly was a good mayor partly because he was brought up in the machine, knew its operations perfectly, and imposed a decent restraint from time to time on its more greedy and corrupt members. Much of what he accomplished was possible only because he was both mayor and boss.”