Yvonne Brown

Yvonne L. Rayford Brown (September 8, 1952 – April 23, 2012 ) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the state of Mississippi. 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 also the Republican nominee for Mississippi's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in the 2006 mid-term elections.

She was notable for being the first female black Republican mayor in the state of Mississippi

Early life Yvonne L. Rayford was born in 1952 in Chicago, Illinois to Hilda and Bennie Rayford. 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. 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 (64.27%) to 55,672 (35.73%).