Memorial service this weekend for Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough

CHICAGO (CBS)-- A memorial service will be held on Sunday to honor the life of Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough. 

Yarbrough, 73, died on April 7 after she was hospitalized last week with an undisclosed medical condition.

The public memorial service will take place on April 14, at the Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. in advance of the 3 p.m. memorial service.

Yarbrough was remembered as a trailblazer. She had a career that spanned local and state politics over three decades. 

First elected in 2018, she is the first woman and first African American to hold that office, overseeing elections in suburban Cook County and maintaining the county's vital records, such as birth, marriage, civil union, and death certificates.

She previously served as Cook County Recorder of Deeds from December 2012 until 2018. Those two offices merged in 2020.

Yarbrough also was an Illinois state representative from 2001 until 2012, representing parts of the western suburbs.