Friends, foes pay tribute to John Stroger

Former Cook County Board President John H. Stroger Jr., revered for his concern for the poor but sometimes criticized for his approach to politics, died Friday morning. He was 78.

Stroger was a classic American story -- a child who grew up picking cotton in the fields of Arkansas and rose to become, at times, the most powerful black politician in Chicago and Cook County.

He was a consummate Chicago story as well, devoting himself to the infamous Chicago Democratic machine and using his charming personality to make himself the first black president of the Cook County Board.

Whether they agreed with his politics or not, friends and opponents said Friday they respected Stroger as a person who sincerely believed in his mission to help the poor and underprivileged improve themselves.

More Coverage Stories Stroger didn't forget suburbs [1/19/08] Stroger stories [1/19/08] Video , class="mediaItem">Remembering John Stroger (courtesy ABC 7)

His legacy, said Cook County Commissioner John Daley, was "his commitment to health care."

Stroger fought in the '90s to build a completely new public hospital at a time when many argued public health care should be farmed out to private hospitals that would be reimbursed by county government. The hospital, which cost roughly half a billion dollars, now bears his name.

"It benefited people who could not afford health care. #8230; That's why he was so instrumental," said Bea Sumlin, former Democratic committeewoman of Stroger's 8th Ward, Stroger's political power base.

Childhood friend Dr. Robert Johnson said part of Stroger's passion for health care may have stemmed from watching his invalid father go without proper care in Arkansas because the family couldn't afford it.

"John wanted to make a change with that," Johnson said.

But Stroger was not always so focused, Johnson said.

"Up until about 10th grade, he wasn't interested in college," Johnson said.

Then, two crucial things changed him, Johnson said. First, Stroger talked with soldiers returning from war who boasted about heading to school on the GI bill.

Second, one of Stroger's teachers told his mother he was not college material.

Stroger was so hurt by the slight he cried. But it lit a fire under him.

"He said, 'Momma, if you let me go, I will not come back until I get a degree,'" Johnson said.

He worked his way through college at St. Xavier University in Louisiana and returned to Arkansas to teach high school, but his involvement in the NAACP rankled many in the Jim Crow South, said State Rep. Marlowe Colvin, a close friend of the Stroger family.

His parents sent him north, where there was more opportunity. Stroger became a loyal Democrat, backing the elder Richard J. Daley in his bids for mayor, and the mayor returned the favor, appointing him committeeman of the 8th Ward.

The bond with the Daley family was cemented, and Stroger played an instrumental role in getting the current Chicago mayor, Richard M. Daley, elected to the Cook County state's attorney's office in 1983.

"My brother Rich wouldn't have been elected state's attorney if it wasn't for John Stroger," John Daley said.

When Daley ran against Harold Washington for mayor, Stroger stuck with the Democratic regulars in the primary and backed Daley.

Although Stroger always stood by the Democratic Party, it did not always stand by him, sometimes bypassing him in favor of whites.

When Stroger, Richard Phelan and Maria Pappas were vying for the Democratic nomination for county board president, Johnson and Stroger sat down to grill Mike Madigan on why he wasn't pushing committeemen harder to nominate Stroger, the one who had been most loyal to the party and been in the trenches the longest.

"Mike Madigan said, 'I agree with you, it is his time, but we have too much to lose and I just don't believe that a black man can win,'" Johnson said.

But Stroger never held a grudge, Colvin said.

Stroger watched as Phelan won, and loyally backed him in the general election.

Commissioner Michael Quigley, one of the first reformers to join the board and challenge Stroger, noted that people often underestimated Stroger -- at their own peril.

"He would play the game that, 'Well, I don't know much, I'm just a simple guy.' But he was very crafty," Quigley said.

When Phelan became president of the county board, his first maneuver was to try to remove Stroger as chairman of the powerful finance committee. Stroger welcomed Phelan to the board by handing him his lunch. He assembled a coalition of Democrats and Republicans who backed him rather than Phelan.

"Stroger taught Phelan a lesson about coalition politics," Colvin said.

Critics said Stroger larded the county payroll with supporters to the detriment of taxpayers and government efficiency. His supporters, however, saw it differently. They saw Stroger giving a chance to people traditionally locked out of opportunity, and, they noted, he kept the property tax levy steady for nearly a decade.

John Daley said although Stroger provided people a foot in the door, he demanded that they work hard.

"He really expected the best of you. He said, 'I can put you on the dance floor, but I can't dance for you,'" Daley said.

But critics said their best is not what Stroger sometimes got from his political hires. Earl Bell and Shirley Glover of the 8th Ward, for instance, would go on to be indicted and convicted for embezzling money from the county.

Still, you can question his politics, but don't question his humanity, friends and opponents said Friday.

"He was the single most genuine human being I ever met in my life," former press secretary Caryn Stancik said.

"I've lost a good friend," John Daley said.

Quigley noted he fought politically with Stroger, "but you could still go to his picnic and share a beer."

That good-natured, healthy fighter is how most friends prefer to remember Stroger, rather than the man who spent nearly two years in and out of the hospital after his stroke on the campaign trail in 2006.

"That's my guy, and I'm sorry he was so tough that he could fight this long," Johnson said.

Despite being in bed in 2006, Stroger still managed to defeat opponent Forrest Claypool.

In one of the most famous local political sagas, Stroger then resigned and party leaders installed his son on the ballot to face Republican Tony Peraica, who also lost.

People questioned why John Stroger didn't make a public appearance himself, but Johnson said it was nothing nefarious on Stroger's part. After his first stroke, Stroger was mentally aware, but his speech was slurred, and he just didn't feel like making a public appearance, Johnson said.

Later, Stroger's condition worsened with another stroke, sources said.

"The unfortunate thing, though, is that people wanted to capitalize on that," Johnson said. "There (were) people that wanted to come out and say, 'John said this and John said that,' and they were plainly (lying)," Johnson said.

Johnson refused to elaborate on who said what.

Instead, Johnson focused on the accomplishments of a man so great that a past U.S. president, William Jefferson Clinton, and one presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, called his wife, Yonnie, Friday to offer their condolences.

Stroger believed that education -- as well as giving the disadvantaged a shot at jobs and contracts that they had been shut out of before -- was the surest way to providing equality for all, Johnson said.

"I'm just proud of the guy. I really am," Johnson said.