Hundreds gather to remember Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough: ‘Compassionate, determined, undaunted’

A collection of politicians, community activists, family, friends and co-workers filled a majestic University of Chicago chapel Sunday to say goodbye to the late Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and remember her trailblazing spirit.

Hundreds gathered inside Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on the university’s Hyde Park campus to bid farewell to Yarbrough, a fixture in state and local Democratic Party politics who died April 7 with more than two years left in her second term in office.

Yarbrough, 73, had been hospitalized at the time, battling an undisclosed medical condition.

Amid stories about her compassion and determination, Yarbrough was eulogized Sunday at a public funeral replete with the tributes bestowed upon an elected public official who championed causes that helped veterans, homeowners, public health and social justice.

She was elected in 2018 as the county’s first African American and female clerk. Voters reelected her in 2022. Though the tributes largely focused on Yarbrough as an innovator in Illinois politics who helped open the door for other women, her personal life as a wife, mother and grandmother also were honored.

Yarbrough is survived by her husband, Henderson, and the couple’s blended family of six children, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In a stirring eulogy, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun said Illinois has lost a visionary and a “beacon of light.” Braun said she was in North Africa when she learned of her beloved friend’s passing and moved “heaven and earth “ to make it in time for Sunday’s funeral. She said the two met more than two decades ago when Yarbrough became a state lawmaker.

“You’d have to be blind not to recognize the transcendent intelligence and curiosity about life that she had,” Braun said. She remembered how the two would commiserate how Black women in politics were often “kicked around for the kinds of things that seem to escape notice” when done by their white male colleagues.

“No offense, white men in the audience,” Braun said, drawing laughter from mourners in the nearly 100-year-old medieval-style cathedral. “But she survived all that and came out even stronger.”

Among those who attended were Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other dignitaries.

Pritzker called Yarbrough “a trailblazer” and “a great public servant.”

“Hers was a storied career in which she tirelessly championed bold causes and toiled behind the scenes to get things done,” Pritzker said. “Compassionate, determined, undaunted. She knew that the most important things … had critics and enemies that would tear you down along the road to success.”

Born Aug. 22, 1950, in Washington, D.C., Yarbrough came to Maywood with her family in the early 1960s. She received her bachelor’s degree in business management at Chicago State University and a master’s in inner-city studies from Northeastern Illinois University. She also studied advanced leadership studies at Harvard-Kennedy School of Government.

Yarbrough first ran for the Illinois House in 1998 against incumbent Rep. Eugene Moore but lost in a four-way primary. In 2000, after Moore left to become recorder of deeds, Yarbrough soon won the legislative seat. After serving as a state lawmaker for more than a decade, ascending to assistant House majority leader, Yarbrough left the legislature when she succeeded Moore as recorder in 2012 upon his retirement.

Her most high-profile accomplishments in Springfield included securing money for local projects and successfully working on legislation to ban indoor smoking in Illinois in 2008.

At Sunday’s funeral, Durbin called Yarbrough a “whirlwind of energy” who was quick to step in to help others, including himself. Durbin recalled how his father had died of lung cancer from smoking at age 53, when Durbin was just a teen, later motivating a public health campaign.

“Illinois was a tough, tough state when it came to tobacco,” Durbin said. “It took a courageous person to step up and say, ‘I’ll take this issue on.’ Somebody who really cared. That courageous person was Karen Yarbrough.”

Yarbrough garnered her biggest accolades for her House sponsorship of the hard-fought ban on executions in Illinois in January 2011.

After leaving Springfield, Yarbrough served as the county recorder for six years until her 2018 election as Cook County clerk, a position she held until her death last week. Her office is mainly responsible for administering suburban elections and maintaining property and legislative records. Her death has led to delays in issuing some vital records, including death certificates.

In the interim, Chief Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles has been running the office.

The Cook County Democratic Party will choose a successor to fill the vacancy through the end of the year and a nominee to run in the November election. The party may choose the same person, or two different people. Executive Director Jacob Kaplan said the party will announce an appointment process after Yarbrough’s memorial.

Most interested candidates are abstaining from publicly campaigning until after the service, though state Rep. Marcus Evans, recent state’s attorney candidate Clayton Harris, county Commissioner Stanley Moore and Water Reclamation District Commissioner Kari Steele are reportedly interested.

The party’s next meeting is scheduled for April 22, when new Democratic committee people that were elected in the March primary will be sworn in. Under recently amended county code, each committeeperson “shall be entitled to one vote” when filling the vacancy through December. A candidate is required to receive a simple majority — in this case, 41 — of the total number of votes in order to be appointed.

The single vote changes the typical calculus for any hopefuls: Appointment votes have typically been weighted based on Democratic turnout in each ward or township, meaning candidates could focus on lobbying committeepersons with high shares of the weighted vote to succeed.

Kaplan said recently it is unclear whether that weighted vote will be used to determine who the party puts on the November ballot.

The Cook County GOP’s own nomination for the November ballot will be discussed at the party’s county convention on April 17.

Amid the hymns, prayer and tributes that punctuated Sunday’s funeral service, officiated by Pastor Darius Brooks of Grace Central Church in suburban Westchester, several public proclamations and resolutions also were read.

One came from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ office. Harris wrote that Yarbrough broke gender and race barriers and embodied the words of her own mother who told Harris, “You must be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.”

Others who spoke, including Duckworth and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, also described her as a pioneer who mentored other women in politics.

“Throughout all the years that I knew her, one of the things I most admired is that I never once saw in her a woman of fear,” Duckworth said. “If she thought she was right, even if she was the only person in the room to hold her opinion, she would plant her flag and refuse to budge.”

Stratton agreed, describing “the weight of being the first or an only” in life.

“It’s not a glamorous fate, rather one that settles on your shoulders, constantly reminding you that one wrong step could land you on your face, crushed under the heaviness of watchful eyes,” Stratton said. “But Karen was never one to be crushed. She used that weight to strengthen and prepare herself for the trials ahead.”

Tribune reporter A.D. Quig contributed.