Complex sentence: McCormick's mother, Katherine Medill McCormick, was the daughter of "Tribune" owner Joseph Medill and hoped that leadership of the paper would pass from her brother-in-law, Robert Wilson Patterson, to her son.
Split into simpler sentences: McCormick's mother, Katherine Medill McCormick, was the daughter of the "Tribune" owner Joseph Medill. She hoped that leadership of the paper would pass from her brother-in-law, Robert Wilson Patterson, to her son.