1964, and they were married in 1982. She died in 2000. Illness and death Ferraro was diagnosed with cancer of the spleen in August 1999 and underwent chemotherapy. Mayor Richard Riordan was at his side, along with family members, when he died at the age of 76 in Santa Monica on April 17, 2001. A crowd of nearly a thousand filled St. Brendan Catholic Church, Ferraro's parish, for a funeral mass conducted by Cardinal Roger Mahony. Family present included Ferraro's brother, Steve, sisters Mary and Rose and his son, Gianni Luckey. Public service Police commission He entered government service in 1953, when Mayor Norris Poulson appointed him to the city Police Commission, where he served for thirteen years. During that period, he advocated more-stringent gun laws and backed African-American John Roseboro, former Los Angeles Dodgers star, to do community relations work for the Police Department after the 1965 Watts riots. City Council Appointment and elections See also List of Los Angeles Municipal election returns, 1967 and after Supported by Mayor Sam Yorty and seen as a "product of the old guard of conservative if nominally Democratic politicians who used to dominate local politics," he was appointed in May 1966 from among thirteen applicants to represent Los Angeles City Council District 4 after the death of incumbent Harold A. Henry. Because of his height, when he took office carpenters had to remove a drawer from his desk so that his legs could fit under it. During his term, which at thirty-five years was the longest in City Council history, the 4th District covered (in 1955) much of the Wilshire district and in general was bounded by Fountain Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue and Catalina Street and (in 1975) Central Los Angeles from Fairfax and Highland Avenues on the west, to Santa Monica Boulevard on the north, the Pasadena Freeway on the east and Olympic Boulevard on the south (1945). In 1986 it was considered a contorted district that included the old areas as well as Atwater, Griffith Park, Forest Lawn Drive and parts of the central San Fernando Valley to Colfax Avenue and Victory Boulevard.<ref>[https://search.proquest.com/docview/154826193 "Los Angeles' Realigned Council Districts," Los Angeles Times," September 21, 1986, page B-3]</ref> In 1989 the district stretched from Hancock Park to Studio City. In 1974, Ferraro ran unsuccessfully against fellow Councilman Edmund D. Edelman for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors,