Foster Hall Yarborough was born on September 18, 1921, in Jenkinsville, South Carolina, to parents Helen Whatley and David Glenn Yarborough. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1941. He served as principal in Wagener schools from 1941 to 1942 and in Cameron schools from 1950 to 1954. He read law in the office of Circuit Solicitor Julian Wolfe and was admitted to the Bar in 1952.
Yarborough was a solo practitioner from 1953 to 1971 and later became partner in the law office of Bryant, Fanning, and Yarborough, followed by partnership in the law firm of Yarborough, Hutto, and Jackson
He served as a state representative from 1956 to 1974, during which he was vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and member of the State House Committee. He was the co–author of legislation creating the State’s Legislative Audit Council to monitor state spending and report findings.
Yarborough was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946, and aerial navigator in the Pacific Theater and a Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
He was elected to the Legislative Audit Council by the General Assembly in 1977, where he served as a member until 1987 and as chair from 1979 to 1982. He also served on the board of the Winthrop University Foundation and was chair of the Orangeburg Democratic Party, commander of the American Legion Post in Orangeburg, commissioner and former chairman of the Orangeburg County Soil and Water Conservation District, and board member of Edisto Farm Credit Service. He received the Order of the Palmetto in 1988 and was named the Orangeburg Citizen of the Year in 1996. He was a member of First Baptist Church in Orangeburg, where he taught Sunday school and was chair of the Board of Deacons.
Hall Yarborough served his nation as an aircraft navigator in hostile territory. He served his state as a courageous and decisive legislator and financial monitor. He served his community as a straightforward and able attorney, as a leader in the agriculture community, and as a stalwart churchman. All of us know many persons who qualify as a servant/leader, but the life and legal career of Hall Yarborough is the personification and epitome of one of the finest servant/leaders who has passed among us.
Yarborough is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Wolfe; and four children, Foster H. Yarborough, Jr., Thomas W. Yarborough, Rev. Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Yarborough, and William H. Yarborough.