Clerk took role in government seriously
For many years, Sylvia "Chris" Harris showed the standard poodles she bred at a national level.
One in particular, Adonis, won acclaim at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club show in New York. And at that level of competition, good breeding on the dog as important as political savvy on the part of the handler.
Harris understood nothing if not politics. It was her lifeblood.
Until the day she died, Nov. 4, Harris - the Bloomingdale Township Clerk - read four newspapers daily, checked in with all the latest political updates and tuned in faithfully to Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
Then she shared her opinions.
"There was no gray area with Chris, that's for sure," Addison Township Republican Chairman Patrick Durante said, chuckling.
Surprisingly, Harris wasn't even an American citizen when she began gaining a reputation as a vocal gadfly more than two decades ago. One of the first missions the Canadian-born woman undertook was the stopping of illegal dumping in Glendale Heights near her home in unincorporated DuPage County.
"I used to make fun of her, 'You're still a Canadian citizen and you're working on all this stuff'," her daughter, Sandy Tucker, said. "She said 'I will but I've got all these other things to do first.'"
She formed the citizens' watchdog group "We the People" in the late 1980s and early 1990s that took on issues she felt involved injustice - and cleaning up government.
Harris was one of the voices of a citizen-driven anti-tax movement credited with defeating some prominent DuPage County Republican incumbents in the 1990 primary election. She worked with other activists fighting a proposed DuPage County convention center in Lombard and spoke out against the DuPage County Airport Authority.
Ironically, her citizenship then became necessary: then-Senate President James "Pate" Philip appointed her to the board of the Airport Authority board, where she eventually became its chairman. From there, Harris moved to the Glenbard High School District 87 school board and got involved in another round of debates about whether the district should build another school within Glendale Heights.
She resigned from the District 87 job in early 2001 citing a family illness, and later was elected as Bloomingdale Township Clerk. She'd already served in the dual role on the school board and as a Bloomingdale Township trustee.
To say she was a staunch Republican was an understatement, her daughter said.
Though she started her community involvement as an insider, she eventually was wrapped into the party's fold by starting out as so many politicians do, as a precinct committeeman, State Sen. Carole Pankau said.
She took her role as being involved in government seriously, even when her health started to fail.
Ironically, her daughter said - with all the love and humor only the deeply grieving can muster - Harris died the day a Democrat was elected president.
It's the sort of irony that Harris would have loved.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at Gary United Methodist Church, 224 N. Main St., Wheaton. For information, Salerno's Rosedale Chapels, Roselle, (630) 889-1700.