When people visit her home in far northwest suburban Huntley, Margaret Manning sometimes will break out the family's most prized possession: the "golden pass."

The pass, signed by the long-ago heads of Major League Baseball, offers free lifetime access to any game in any stadium in the National or American leagues. It was issued more than 50 years ago to her aunt, Margaret "Midge" Donahue, for her "long and meritorious service" with the Chicago Cubs.

"We were always in awe of it growing up," said Andrea Manning, Margaret Manning's daughter.

But Margaret Donahue is more than just a point of pride for her relatives, who knew her as "Aunt Midge." She is recognized by historians as a groundbreaking baseball executive, and her fame is likely to grow next year when the Cubs include her story in festivities marking the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field.

Donahue, who worked for the team from 1919 to 1958, was the first female front-office executive in Major League Baseball who was not also an owner. She was an innovator who changed professional baseball by introducing the concept of season tickets in 1929. And she came up with other novel ideas that are now commonplace, from selling tickets at off-site locations to offering a reduced ticket price for children under 12.

Contemporaries were impressed by how Donahue changed the way the game was presented to the public.

"(Donahue is) as astute a baseball operator as ever came down the pike," wrote legendary baseball owner and executive Bill Veeck in 1954. "She has forgotten more baseball in her 40 years with the Cubs than most of the so-called magnates will ever know."

Now, almost 35 years after her death, her accomplishments are being rediscovered. Among her admirers: Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts.

"We're working with (Donahue's family) to obtain some of the memorabilia that we can put on display," Ricketts said. "Her story is an inspiration. And the fact that she accomplished what she did almost 100 years ago makes it truly remarkable and impressive."

In addition to the Cubs' recognition, the Baseball Reliquary is considering Donahue for honors. The not-for-profit organization, based in California, recognizes players and executives from years past as sort of an alternative to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Donahue will be up for consideration as the Reliquary narrows its ballot to 50 candidates for its "Shrine of the Eternals" honors next year.

This newfound recognition is especially rewarding for Donahue's three nieces, who were born and still live in Huntley, where their Aunt Midge was born in 1892, when it was still a farming community.

The three nieces — Margaret Manning, Mary Beth Manning and Barbara Ernesti — knew about Donahue's illustrious career with the Cubs. But they became enlightened about her innovations only after Mary Beth's daughter, Regina, checked out a copy of Paul Dickson's 2012 biography, "Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick," from the Barrington library.

That biography mentioned Donahue and her pioneering work with the Cubs — and also her impact on Veeck himself. Dickson believes her aunt was a major influence on the future innovative owner of the White Sox, St. Louis Browns and Cleveland Indians.

"They worked side by side in the Cubs front office (in the 1930s)," Dickson said. "She fed him this idea that baseball wasn't just about the men in the ballpark, that a ballpark should also have a family atmosphere."

Veeck's father, William, hired Donahue not long after he became president of the Cubs in 1919. She was given a job as Veeck's stenographer after he responded to a "job wanted" ad that Donahue had placed in the Sunday Tribune.

"I wanted a job somewhere in the Loop, but I forgot to mention it in the ad," Donahue told the Sun-Times' Edgar Munzel in 1958. "I declined the job (but William Veeck) offered me far more than what I was making (at a laundry supply company) and persuaded me to take it. At the end of the season, I tried to quit again but he countered by making my hours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and I stayed."

Donahue was soon impressing the elder Veeck with her intelligence, and he began giving her more responsibilities, especially in the ticket office.

Veeck dropped a bombshell at the 1926 winter league meetings when he announced that Donahue was taking over as corporate secretary, a position filled by a vote of the club's board of directors.

"I haven't signed any players recently," Veeck said then. "(But) we feel that in Miss Donahue we have added a real asset to our club organization."

Her promotion made national news. The Sporting News ran a story about her, and her new job was featured on the front page of the Tribune's Dec. 14, 1926, sports section, where a picture of her sitting at a desk was accompanied by the headline "She's a Baseball Boss."

Donahue backed up this confidence in her by coming up with several revolutionary ideas, beginning with selling season tickets to Cubs games at Wrigley Field before the 1929 season.

Contemporary accounts and current historians say Donahue was definitely the first person in Major League Baseball — and most probably any professional sport — to come up with the idea of season tickets, which since have become a key revenue stream for sports organizations worldwide.

"She said that they would often save seats for people on game day, and sometimes they didn't come," said her niece Margaret Manning. "And they were saving some of their best seats, and people weren't coming. So she thought they would probably be forced to come if they bought the tickets in advance."

The idea was an immediate hit, with thousands of tickets being sold before the season began. "It's the greatest pre-season rush in Cubs history," said Veeck, whose team proceeded to lead the league in attendance, drawing more than 1.4 million fans.

Donahue followed up that idea with the novel concept of selling tickets at the city's Western Union outlets, then commonplace in Chicago and in urban areas nationwide.

"She thought it would be convenient to give people the option of buying tickets at other locations than the park," Margaret Manning said.