{"id":35744,"date":"2026-04-20T09:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=35744"},"modified":"2026-04-20T09:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:42:44","slug":"barbara-flynn-currie-40-year-veteran-of-illinois-house-trailblazer-for-women-in-springfield-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/35744-barbara-flynn-currie-40-year-veteran-of-illinois-house-trailblazer-for-women-in-springfield-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Flynn Currie, 40-Year Veteran of Illinois House, Trailblazer for Women in Springfield, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First woman majority leader remembered as \u2018the original Illinois progressive\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By HANNAH MEISEL <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"mailto:hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Article Summary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Former Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who served 40 years in the General Assembly, died Thursday at 85.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currie was first elected to the House in 1978, at a time when women made up only a small minority of the legislature. After 18 years in Springfield, Currie was promoted to House Majority Leader, the first woman to hold the second-in-command role.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currie retired from the General Assembly in 2019 but was then appointed to head the Illinois Pollution Control Board, a post she held until her death.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CHICAGO \u2014 Barbara Flynn Currie, a 40-year veteran of the Illinois House and the first woman to serve as the second-in-command majority leader of the chamber, died Thursday. She was 85.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currie, who is tied for the second-longest-serving legislator in Illinois&#8217; modern era<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">behind imprisoned ex-Speaker Michael Madigan, retired from the Illinois House in early 2019 but remained involved in state government and politics, including serving as the head of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, a post she held until her death. She maintained relationships with colleagues who grieved her death on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, who was elected in 2018 to replace Currie after she announced she wouldn\u2019t seek a 21<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> term, was emotional as he summarized her legacy as a \u201ctrailblazer\u201d in a speech on the House floor in Springfield. He said she \u201craised her children first, finished her degree later, in what she described as \u2018doing it on the motherhood plan.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat mattered,\u201d Tarver said. \u201cIt shaped how she saw people, how she approached policy and how she understood their real lives behind the decisions we make in this chamber.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currie, whose father taught at the University of Chicago, grew up in Hyde Park and graduated from its laboratory high school in 1958. But the next year, she withdrew from her university studies at the U of C and married her husband David, a recent graduate, whom she followed to Harvard Law School. In the early 1960s, the couple moved back to Chicago when David began teaching at the U of C\u2019s law school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While raising young children, Currie finally obtained her undergraduate degree in 1968 before working on the campaign of activist and lawyer Michael Shakman to be elected delegate to the 1969-70 constitutional convention. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mag.uchicago.edu\/law-policy-society\/after-40-years-representing-hyde-parks-district-illinois-house-veteran-lawmaker\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As she told the University of Chicago\u2019s alumni magazine in 2019<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it was Shakman who encouraged her to run for an open House seat in 1978.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Currie arrived in Springfield as a newly minted legislator in January 1979, it was to a Capitol \u2014 and by extension, a state government \u2014 run almost exclusively by men. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilga.gov\/house\/transcripts\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to transcripts of House proceedings at the time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, she was referred to as \u201cMrs. Currie\u201d more than a third of the times she was called on to speak on the House floor during her first term; in modern times, representatives are almost exclusively referred to by their titles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women comprised roughly 13% of the legislature in those days, and as Currie told the U of C\u2019s magazine in 2019, the few women who were in public office \u201cgenerally inherited the job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Tarver noted Friday that there are now 78 women in the General Assembly, which account for roughly 44% of the Illinois House and Senate, a statistic that can be directly traced back to Currie, he said. Madigan\u2019s appointment of Currie to majority leader in 1997 was not popular, but Tarver said she\u2019d earned it \u201cthrough preparation, discipline, and most importantly, intellect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cShe did not inherit it,\u201d he said. \u201cShe built the path.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, who is now the second woman to serve in that role, broke down in tears Friday as she asked the House for a moment of silence \u201cto honor my friend, my mentor and my role model for over 30 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gabel expounded on Currie\u2019s example of serving \u201cwith dignity &#8230; humility\u201d and her example of how \u201cto dedicate your life to something larger than yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHer leadership in the General Assembly helped guide the state through some of the most difficult moments,\u201d she said. \u201cThe impeachment, actually.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gabel was referring to the impeachment proceedings of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in early 2009, for which Currie had been appointed chair of the House committee to investigate the governor after his December 2008 arrest by FBI agents. Blagojevich wouldn\u2019t be indicted until April 2009, but in the weeks after his arrest, the Democratic governor declined to resign.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to shaking down people, including children\u2019s hospital leaders, for campaign donations, Blagojevich was accused of attempting to sell president-elect Barack Obama\u2019s U.S. Senate seat. Before his 2004 election to Congress, Currie worked extremely closely with Obama as her state House district comprised half of the district he represented in the Illinois Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heather Wier Vaught, an attorney in the speaker\u2019s office at the time who worked on the impeachment effort, recalled that when Madigan formed the bipartisan committee, many in Springfield expected a quick process wherein articles of impeachment were drafted and Blagojevich swiftly removed from office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But from the outset, Currie made clear that the committee\u2019s work would be \u201ca very solemn experience\u201d and that \u201cevery i was dotted and every t was crossed,\u201d Wier Vaught, who is now a Springfield lobbyist, said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wier Vaught said Currie and the committee had to invent the process \u201cfrom scratch,\u201d because the state constitution didn\u2019t specifically lay it out and Blagojevich was the first constitutional officer impeached in Illinois.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA lot of us on staff \u2014 we never worked harder, we never worked so many hours as we did those weeks because she was so insistent we did everything right,\u201d she said, including giving Blagojevich a chance to defend himself. Ultimately, he declined to testify.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cShe didn\u2019t just treat it as a political exercise,\u201d Wier Vaught said of the impeachment proceedings. \u201cIt was important to her that it not look like a clown show and that it be a legitimate process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wier Vaught pointed to Currie\u2019s same seriousness in leading the post-impeachment negotiations on campaign finance reform, along with other matters like criminal justice reform, which she said Currie championed \u201cbefore it was cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another former Democratic House staffer-turned-lobbyist, Liz Brown, agreed, calling Currie \u201cthe original Illinois progressive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currie was often criticized as being too close to Madigan and what many referred to as his \u201cDemocratic Machine.\u201d But from Brown&#8217;s vantage point during a near-decade on staff, she said she saw Currie \u201cwork within the system\u201d to change it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you look at all the bills that passed under Madigan that had any progressive bent, that was Barbara,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThere wouldn\u2019t be any progressive wins without her pushing back on Madigan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Currie was also a pragmatist, Brown said, and a master negotiator with an acerbic wit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She also recalled Currie going to bat for her personally when she wanted to leave staff to become a lobbyist in 2009. Brown said that key Madigan deputies told her flat-out no \u2014 \u201cthis isn\u2019t the year you become a lobbyist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Brown, Currie stepped in, \u201cphysically pushed me\u201d into the office of the senior staffer and said simply: \u201cshe\u2019s becoming a lobbyist.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the message back was that Brown \u201cwouldn\u2019t be getting any help from the speaker\u2019s office,\u201d Currie retorted that \u201cshe won\u2019t need any.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brown said the episode was another example of Currie working within the system to change it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou had to earn her respect,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you earned it, she had your back for life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First woman majority leader remembered as \u2018the original Illinois progressive\u2019 By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0 Article Summary\u00a0 Former Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who served 40 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":35745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Barbara Flynn Currie, 40-Year Veteran of Illinois House, Trailblazer for Women in Springfield, Dies - 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