Thomas R. Yarborough (July 23, 1895 – March 19, 1969) was an American civic leader and politician. In 1948, he became the first African American elected to a California city council. In 1966, Yarborough became the first African American mayor of Lake Elsinore, California, and one of three African Americans to be elected mayor that year in California. Early life and education T. R. Yarborough was born in Dermott, Arkansas, on July 23, 1895. His parents were William and Alice Yarborough (née Otis). He moved with his family to Greenville, Mississippi, where he received a public school education, and studied at Straight University, a historically black college in New Orleans, from 1911 to 1912. Due to economic hardship, Yarborough dropped out of school to earn a living, working as a bricklayer, janitor, and chauffeur. In 1916, he married Kathryn Stewart, a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. The Yarboroughs first moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1919. Business career In 1924, Yarborough worked as a caretaker for the author Harold Bell Wright in Tucson, Arizona. In 1926, he moved back to Los Angeles, where he learned to upholster furniture at night while working at a furniture factory. Thomas and Kathryn Yarborough became "year-round residents" in the small town of Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, California, in 1929. Thomas had first visited Lake Elsinore, known for its dry climate and mineral springs, for relief from asthma, after doctors gave him only one year to live. From 1929 to 1934, Yarborough was a caretaker and handyman for the estate of the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. During his tenure, he worked with building contractors and interior decorators on the construction of her "castle" in Lake Elsinore, and built the distinctive dome over the entrance to her home. Yarborough eventually opened his own upholstery business. He also invested in real estate, buying land at tax sales in Riverside County, which he later sold or developed as rental properties. He managed year-round and vacation rentals as part of his property management business. Civic and political career In 1947, Yarborough founded the Elsinore Progressive League, which later became known as the Hilltop Community Center. He bought the former barracks of March Air Force Base, and turned it into a community center with social and cultural activities which were open to all, regardless of skin color. In the late 1940s, Yarborough was appointed to the Elsinore Planning