Yvonne Brown

Background

Yvonne L. Rayford was born in 1952 in Chicago, Illinois to Hilda and Bennie Rayford. Her father had been active in the Democratic Party and worked as a local co-ordinator for Jesse Jackson"s 1984 presidential campaign.

Education

After she graduated from Rogers High School, the family moved back to her parents" native Mississippi.

Career

She was elected as Mayor of Tchula, serving two terms from 2001 to 2009. This small town is in Holmes County on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta. She was notable for being the first female black Republican mayor in the state of Mississippi, according to numerous sources.

Several sources cr her as being the first one in the entire United States.

He was not well received by local Democrats when he returned to Mississippi and changed parties, becoming a Republican. Yvonne also became a Republican.

Yvonne Rayford first married Russell Barnett. Barnett worked for Monroe Auto Equipment in Monroe County, Mississippi, Irvin Automotive in Greenwood and Pharmacy Corporation of America.

Together they co-founded the Grace Community Church in Tchula.

In June 2001, Yvonne Rayford Brown was the Republican nominee for Mayor of Tchula, a black-majority town that is 99% Democratic. She also used federal funding for water, sewer and street construction and built or improved recreational facilities. As Mayor, she earned a salary of $6,000 per year.

She served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2004 and was re-elected Mayor in 2005.

Brown was the Republican nominee for Mississippi"s 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in the 2006 mid-term elections. She was unopposed in the Republican primary and faced Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson in the general election, losing to the longtime congressman by 100,160 votes (6427%) to 55,672 (3573%).

After leaving office in 2009, Brown worked as the Lowndes County Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. She was diagnosed with cancer in February 2011 and resigned a few months later.

She died in April 2012, aged 59.

Achievements

• She won the election, defeating the Democratic incumbent and receiving national media attention as the first female black Republican mayor in the United States. As Mayor, she won a stimulus package grant of $5 million from Washington for her town which she used, in part, to build a municipal complex.