When I heard of the untimely passing of Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, at 73, I flashed back to an interview I did with her in 2010. Yarbrough was a trailblazer, who was the first Black person and first woman to serve as Cook County Clerk. My focus, though, was on how Karen and her husband, Henderson, raised their grandson.
As many grandparents have learned, you can never say never to raising a grandchild. Death, illness, or impairment can leave children parentless, and many times grandparents step up to the plate. Karen came to the Forest Park Public Library to give a presentation about her experience.
“Grandparents Raising Grandchildren” was the subject of her program. Karen and other speakers described the governmental resources available to grandparents and support groups they can join. She wasn’t sure she would tell her story, but she did and many were moved.
Karen and Henderson were empty-nesters when they suddenly became parents of a 13-year-old grandson. The boy’s mother had died when he was 3 and his maternal grandmother raised him. When she became terminally ill, the Yarbroughs promised to take care of him. He was dropped off at their house right after his grandmother’s funeral.
Fortunately, the Yarbroughs had ample resources to take on child-raising, providing their grandson with his own room for the first time. They also knew how to advocate for him. So when she visited his school and learned the teenager was stuck in fifth grade, she was appalled.
She read her grandson’s thick file, documenting his learning disabilities. He was promptly promoted to eighth grade, where he was fortunate to have the “best teacher in the system.” Karen said this teacher made all the difference and he ended up graduating from high school.
In the meantime, she became a mom again: helping with homework, driving him to school events, taking him to doctor’s appointments, etc. It was a huge adjustment to their busy schedules, but they were always there for their grandson.
Karen confessed she “didn’t know how to raise a boy,” having no prior experience. But their grandson made it easy, with his agreeable disposition and self-starting attitude. They never had to wake him up for school and he didn’t miss a day of class.
Now the 35-year-old is on his own, earning a good living. He once showed Karen a photograph of an incarcerated first cousin and said, “Grandma, if it hadn’t been for you, I’d be in there, too.”
The Yarbroughs can be proud that their second try at parenting went so well and want to help others get it right. Though there’s a perception that this is a Black or brown issue, Karen said more whites are raising grandchildren than minorities.
She wasn’t only a guiding light to her grandson. She was a mentor to our mayor, Rory Hoskins. He met her in 2007, when he was a freshman commissioner. At the time, the town was plagued by potholes on Desplaines Avenue and on Jackson Boulevard. Karen arranged a meeting between Hoskins and the Illinois Secretary of Transportation.
She sponsored the Smoke Free Illinois Act, which finally cleared the air at our bars and restaurants. She was a sponsor of the bill that ended the death penalty in Illinois. She helped Hoskins raise his profile in the community by attending the Juneteenth Pool Party and later asked Hoskins if she could swear him in for his second term as mayor.
Karen Yarbrough was a mentor to her grandson. She also helped a young village official become a more effective leader for Forest Park.
