JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hundreds of people turned out on a Saturday night to celebrate the historic inauguration of the first elected woman as Jacksonville mayor. They filled the River Club of Jacksonville for the Inaugural Ball, dressed to the nines and ready to party.
PHOTOS: Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan has emotional, historic and memorable inauguration
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Mayor Deegan took to the stage at 8:20 p.m. and spoke to the crowd. She was introduced by her husband, Tim Deegan. Her speech was brief and you can read it below:
“Beautiful to see all of you. You look so gorgeous. Jacksonville is gorgeous, isn’t it? Thank you all so much for being here. What a beautiful love-filled day this has been. I can’t even tell you how grateful I am to see all of you, how grateful I am. And, really, I’m still pinching myself that I get to do this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jacksonville. And thank you to all of you for being here and for celebrating with us tonight. It truly is a new day in our city and one that I see as just the beginning. So I hope you all are having a good time. Are we having fun? I hope you’ve heard enough speeches today because I know I’ve given enough speeches. So I just wanted to say, I wanted to get a chance to look at you all out here and say how much I appreciate the fact that you spent this whole weekend with me celebrating. I know you know what this means. We have a city that has everything going for it, every possible advantage, and we’re going to take that and we’re going to create the city that we all want and deserve for our kids and our grandkids and all of us. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Enjoy the evening. And let’s start a brand new day starting today.”
VIDEO: Inaugural Ball for Mayor Deegan
Members of Deegan’s executive team, as well as other city leaders attended. The band, The Royals, entertained the guests as they danced the night away.