John Lindsay - Later Life

Later Life

After leaving office, Lindsay returned to the law, but remained in the public eye as a commentator and regular guest host for ABC's "Good Morning America." In 1975, Lindsay made a surprise appearance on The Tony Awards telecast in which he, along with a troupe of celebrity male suitors in tuxedos, sang "Mame" to Angela Lansbury. He presented the award for Best Director Of A Play to John Dexter for the play Equus. Lindsay also tried his hand at acting, appearing in Otto Preminger's Rosebud; the following year his novel, The Edge, was published (Lindsay had earlier authored two non-fiction memoirs). Attempting a political comeback in 1980, Lindsay made a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from New York, and finished third. He was also active in New York City charities, serving on the board of the Association for a Better New York, and as chairman of the Lincoln Center Theatre. On his death the New York Times said he was credited with a significant role in the theatre's rejuvenation.

Medical bills from his Parkinson's Disease, heart attacks and stroke, depleted Lindsay's finances and he found himself without health insurance. In 1996 Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed the former Mayor to two largely ceremonial posts to make him eligible for municipal health insurance coverage. He and his wife Mary moved to a retirement community in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in November 1999, where he died the next year at the age of seventy-nine of complications from pneumonia and Parkinson's disease. His wife Mary died in 2004.

In 2000, Yale Law School created a fellowship program named in Lindsay's honor. In 1998, a park in Brooklyn, Lindsay Triangle was named in his honor and in 2001, the East River Park was renamed in his memory. He is featured on a poster picture with Governor Rockefeller at the groundbreaking of the former World Trade Center in the city history section of the Museum of the City of New York at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street. In the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a Mitchell-Lama Development has been erroneously thought to be named after Mayor Lindsay (Lindsay Park). This development was actually named after Congressman George W. Lindsay (1865–1938) (no relation.)