After being admitted to the hospital last week for an undisclosed medical condition, Karen Yarbrough has died this evening. Yarbrough is the first Black person ever elected to the office of Cook County clerk.

“Her loss is devastating, because all the new people coming into politics just don’t have what she had. She was honest. She was straight. She didn’t have two stories. You could look her in the eye, and she had empathy for you,” said Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

More information to come.