page_title: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's senior class photograph at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.
context_page_description: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is an American politician and lawyer from California. She was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in the U.S. Congress from 1973 until January 1979. She was the Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District. She has served as the Chair three times. Her husband is William Burke, a prominent philanthropist and creator of the Los Angeles Marathon.
  On December 1, 2008, she retired from the Board of Supervisors and was replaced by Mark Ridley-Thomas.
  On March 29, 2012, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Amtrak Board of Directors.
context_section_description: Yvonne Watson was born on October 5, 1932, in Los Angeles as only child to James A. Watson and the former Lola Moore. 
  After first attending a public school, she was sent to a model school for exceptional children. At Manual Arts High School she was a member of the debate team and served as vice president of the Latin Club her junior year and Girls' Vice President in her senior year.
  Burke attended the University of California, Berkeley from c. 1949 to 1951 before receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1953. She subsequently earned a J.D. degree from the University of Southern California Law School in 1956. Burke is one of the first black women to be admitted to University of Southern California Law School.
  In 1957 she married Louis Brathwaite and in 1964 they divorced. She married William A. Burke in Los Angeles on June 14, 1972. Their daughter Autumn Burke was born on November 23, 1973.
caption: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in 1950
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