Chandler succeeded the controversial Henry Loeb, who battled local sanitation workers during a strike that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis in April 1968.
This violence-ridden episode in the city's history resulted in King's death by assassin James Earl Ray on April 4.
Chandler spent much of his tenure dealing with the economic and social fallout from the strike and the killing, as the incidents gave the city a bad name among business and charitable interests for some years.
Some Memphians criticized his administration as too "status quo", but he was undeniably popular, winning three consecutive elections.
After resigning from office in October 1982 to accept a judgeship appointment from the Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander, Chandler was succeeded by two interim mayors: first by J.O.