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Presidential Citizens Medal Recipient Sydney Yates
For many years, under the wise guidance and leadership of Congressman Sydney Yates, Congress understood the cultural and economic importance of federal funding for the arts. Congressman Yates almost single-handedly protected the arts, and was awarded for his tireless efforts by President Bill Clinton in 1993 with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Sidney Yates served state in Congress for 48 years
"Dewey defeats Truman!" The famous photograph of President Harry S Truman holding that erroneous front page of the Chicago Tribune in November 1948 is an indelible memory.
But the story of Truman's narrow victory is not complete without the related news that also elected that day were Democrats Adlai Stevenson as governor, Paul Douglas as senator and a young congressman who succeeded against a Republican incumbent.
Sidney Yates, who served Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives for most of the next half-century, died Oct. 5 at age 91 of pneumonia and kidney failure in a Washington, D.C., hospital.
A 1933 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Mr. Yates practiced law and played semiprofessional basketball until World War II, during which he served as a Navy lieutenant and contracting officer.
In 1948, he was recruited by the Democratic Party as token opposition in a Republican lakefront district, and he scored an upset. Two years later, he was re-elected by a slim majority, but in 1996 the popular congressman received 70 percent of the vote in his last election.
The only election Mr. Yates lost was when he challenged Everett Dirksen in 1962 for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He returned to the House in 1964, after having lost 18 years of seniority, and he retired in 1998.
In his pre-war law practice, Mr. Yates was a partner in Yates & Holleb, an assistant attorney for the Illinois state bank receiver and assistant attorney at the Illinois Commerce Commission.
After his loss to Sen. Dirksen, Mr. Yates served in 1963-64 as a U.S. representative to the United Nations Trusteeship Council with the rank of ambassador.
A recipient in 1993 of a Presidential Citizens Medal for his support of the arts and humanities, Mr. Yates served on the boards of the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
He is remembered for his forceful chairmanship of the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee that provided funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A Sidney and Addie Yates Exhibition Center is part of the Field Museum complex in Chicago. The 48 linden trees planted along its north side represent the 48 years Mr. Yates served on Congress.
Survivors include a son, Cook County Judge Stephen R. Yates.
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Citizens Medal History
