Anthony Joseph Celebrezze Sr. (born Antonio Giuseppe Cilibrizzi, Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo dʒuˈzɛppe tʃiliˈbrittsi]; September 4, 1910 – October 29, 1998) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, who served as the 49th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as a cabinet member in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Celebrezze was born in 1910 as one of thirteen children to Dorothy (née Marcogiuseppe) and Rocco Cilibrizzi in Anzi, a town in the administrative region of Basilicata, southern Italy.

After having been a shepherd in Anzi, the father Rocco took an industrial job, becoming a track laborer for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad in Cleveland.

Like many of his immigrant generation, Anthony Celebrezze took odd jobs as a youngster, shining shoes and selling newspapers.

[1] That same year, he married Anne M. Marco, a graduate of Western Reserve University and a teacher in the Cleveland Public School system, on May 7, 1938.

One of the few Democrats to serve in the Senate at the time, Celebrezze cultivated a friendly relationship with the Republican majority.

The Democratic party organization chose Albert S. Porter, Engineer of Cuyahoga County, to succeed Burke.

Celebrezze drove efforts to build or upgrade the city's infrastructure, and conducted a massive $140 million urban-renewal program.

Celebrezze turned it down to run for a record-breaking fifth consecutive term as mayor, which he won by an unprecedented 73.8 percent, sweeping every one of the city's thirty-three wards.

[1] Kennedy appointed him also to serve on the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and the Commission on the Status of Women.

[8] Celebrezze found it difficult to maintain two households on his $25,000 salary and apart from his family,[1] and asked Johnson to return to Cleveland.

The President replied that Celebrezze was too honest for Washington because he was the first cabinet secretary "to go broke while working for the White House."

[7] Celebrezze was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 27, 1965, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which had been vacated by Judge Lester Lefevre Cecil.

[1] In the last three years of his life, Celebrezze was mostly inactive on the court, and spent most of his time organizing his personal papers.

[9] His funeral was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland, and he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery [Wikidata] in Brook Park, Ohio.