And 45 years before Fernandez, a two-term City Councilwoman and former university professor, became the first woman seeking a major-party nomination for the top political job in the nation's fifth-largest city: mayor of Philadelphia.
At 59, Fernandez is a complicated mix of many worlds - at once pragmatic and idealistic, shrewd and maladroit.
She also is the only Democrat in the primary field of five ever to have run a successful citywide campaign. She did it in 1991 and 1995.
And as her historic campaign proceeds, supporters hope Fernandez can bring it home once more, for the big one:
Mayor Happy Fernandez.
In her seven years on Council, Fernandez kept a relatively low profile.
To bolster school revenue she voted for a controversial liquor tax.
She supported Mayor Rendell's hard bargaining with municipal unions in 1992 and 1993, helped him defeat a proposal to penalize banks that charge ATM fees, and backed Schools Superintendent David Hornbeck, which alienated the powerful teachers' union.
``I know that on the important issues of education . . . she has been supportive, and we've endorsed and supported her in her races for Council,'' said Ted Kirsch, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. ``But she's not at the top of my list for mayor.''
Fernandez puts education at the top of her list.
She wants the mayor - not the school board - to have the power to appoint a superintendent at the start of each mayoral term. She wants more money for summer school and after-school programs.
But there are skeptics.
``One could look at Happy Fernandez and ask, where has she been from 1992 to 1998 in making public education an important item in Council, in public thinking, anywhere?'' asked Randall Miller, a history professor at St. Joseph's University.
