Savage graduated from Edison High School in Tulsa and in 1974 earned a B.A. degree from Beaver College (now Arcadia University) in Pennsylvania. She returned to Tulsa in 1977 and became executive Director of the Metropolitan Tulsa Citizens Crime Commission. Savage went on to become chief of staff to then-Tulsa Mayor Rodger Randle before eventually winning the seat herself in a 1992 special election to fill Randle’s unexpired term.
Savage served as mayor of Tulsa from 1992 to 2002, and was the first woman to hold that office.
During Savage’s administration, the Reason Public Policy Institute of Los Angeles ranked Tulsa 3rd among 44 U.S. cities for how well it delivered government services. Newsweek magazine feature Savage as one of the nation’s 25 “mayors to watch” in 1996.
