SPOTLIGHT ON COMMUNITY: Rosemary Foster

Rosemary Foster

Rosemary Foster has been serving as our Kankakee County Board representative for Pembroke and Sun River Terrace for past 6 years. As Kankakee County Board member, she works on the Executive and Financial Committees. Her connections with key community leaders introduced her to the world of politics. While attending Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the oldest church in Pembroke where most everyone went back then, she met Ms. Hayes, one of our community’s pillars.

Moved to Pembroke

Rosemary is an only child whose parents moved her to Pembroke in 1963 from Chicago’s Southside at the age of 12.

“My parents dragged me out here. I didn’t want to come. I was just feelin’ myself at that age, getting to know Chicago. But growing up in Pembroke, I got acclimated and it was ok.”

She attended grade school at St. Pats Academy in Momence and graduated from St. Anne High School (SACHS) in 1970.

Rosemary recalls,

Old lady Graham at SACHS told me I was not college material. My neighbor and friend across the street, Cora Woods, said to me, ‘No, Tee (that’s what they called me) you can go to college.’ She went to Momence and I went to SACHS because I lived on the other side of the street in a different school district. She helped me fill out the application and submit it and I got in. That goes to show you, it’s good to know friends and people in the community that will push you along who sees something in you.

Rosemary graduated with a Bachelors in Sociology in 1976 from Eastern Illinois University and later went on to get a Masters in Sociology form Olivet Nazarene University.

Now ready to face the real world, Rosemary started looking for work in Chicago when Jackie Stampley who worked for Mr. Hayes at the Township called her. Jackie informed her, "Kankakee Community College (KCC) is looking for G.E.D. teachers." Rosemary went to KCC and applied with Mr. Frye, the Director at the time, and got the job.

Life moved on. Rosemary got married and had 2 children, Christine and Joseph.

During this time, Rosemary got a job with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in Chicago. After working in Chicago for 2 years, she got transferred to Kankakee. She retired from DCFS after 37 years of employment.

Rosemary Foster at Department of Children and Family Services receives Community Mentor Hope Award in 1992.

Life in Politics

When Rosemary graduated college, she wasn’t old enough to vote because back then you had to be 21 and she wasn’t quite 21 yet. She started working for Pembroke Township as the Youth Director. "At that time, our local community center was fully operational," she remembers. They had summer activities for the children. They would take the children swimming to the YMCA in the summer thanks to funding from the United Way. She remembers putting on a play for them too.

Once a year, Rosemary went to Peoria with the Township for their Annual Board meetings. She worked with Ms. Hayes, Ms. Sessions, Ms. Higginbottom and Mr. Corbett and others. "This is how I got introduced to politics," Rosemary admits.

She ran for public office first as a Pembroke Township Assessor.

Rosemary was asked to run for Village Board Trustee by the Village Mayor, Samuel Payton.

I told him, "I live in the Township not the Village."

She didn’t know that her area was annexed into the Village because the proposed prison was slated to come to the neighborhood.

She ran and won and served under Mayor Walter Jones’s administration who defeated Mayor Payton in that race. She continued on under the next administration too with Mayor Mark Hodge.

Next, Rosemary ran for Kankakee County Board at the request of Samuel Payton once again, who at the time was serving as Kankakee County Board member for the area.

“Mr. Payton said he was ready to move off the County Board and wanted me to take his place,” Rosemary explains.

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Rosemary was asked, what contributions or progress have been made for the community while serving on Kankakee County Board:

• We got the natural gas pipeline in. Since I got on the line, my bill has been a steady $60-70 per month compared to every August having to find $2000 dollars to get propane gas. Coming up with 70 is easier to come up with than 2000. Due to Trump administration and the wars, the cost of propane and gas this year is going to be bad.

  
  

• We have money for Broadband when the federal government releases it.

  
  

• Under Mayor Hodge’s administration, the communication with the Kankakee County Board has improved with him being the face of Pembroke.

  
  

• Kankakee County does a good job keeping the roads clear in the winter.

  
  

• The lift station by my house was smelling and the County gave $100,000 to get that fixed.

  
  

• I serve on the committee for Christmas, Inc. to provide Christmas dinner for the community. Sun River Terrace had this program and Mr. Payton stewarded this and got involved with the chairperson and brought it here. This will be our third year. We are planning a big gold fundraiser for this.

After running down the progress being made in the Pembroke, she offered what more she wants to see get done.

• We need commercial businesses. This building next door to me used to be Emerald Foods Store and its now owned by Mark Hodge and he’s reviving it. He is thinking about making it into an animal feed store.

  
  

• We need a laundry mat. Down by the post office at the 3-way, where that old gas station sits, that used to be a laundromat. It was later bought by Germans and turned into an auto shop and gas station.

  
  

• We need affordable housing and infrastructure. We have Hispanics moving in buying property because we let it go. We need to be sociable and welcoming. We need to demand Kankakee to bring GED back to our community, but we need broadband for that.

  
  

• We need to educate our own kids. Lorenzo can probably go to 9th and 10th grade. Only if we had not been so much into sports when Mr. Brady started CIDAL. His idea was first in private, independent schools for kids but kids didn’t want to go because they were being sold on the dream of becoming a professional athlete.

  
  

• We need our electrical grid upgraded and CDC is working on that. My lights were flickering the other day.

While I’ve been on the County Board, I have tried to put our people like Tonia Lafi on some of the different committees. They have to fill out an application to the chairperson to be chosen. Any of the open positions can be found at their website: https://www.k3county.net/334/County-Board-Committee-Openings.

We have a big election coming up. We have to do better and demand these things that we need.

Author: Louise Campbell-Anthony