Three days of services and events honoring the life of longtime U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson began Monday with her lying in state at the Hall of State in Dallas's Fair Park and will end with a wake in Southern Dallas.
Johnson died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 89.
President Joe Biden traveled to Dallas on Monday to attend Johnson's wake. The president hailed her "immense courage" and called her "an icon and mentor to generations of public servants, through whom her legacy of resilience and purpose will endure."
Eddie Bernice Johnson, also known as EBJ, was lying in state at the Hall of State in Dallas Fair Park on Monday. The wake will be held Monday night at Concord Church. A funeral service will be held at that church Tuesday morning. The former congresswoman will be buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin on Wednesday.
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PHOTOS: Mourners pay respect as former U.S. Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson lies in state
Eddie Bernice Johnson, a nurse who helped bring hundreds of millions of federal dollars to the Dallas area as the region's most powerful Democrat, was a trailblazer. Johnson was the first nurse to be elected not only to Congress but also to the Texas House in 1972 and Texas Senate in 1986.
Johnson served in the U.S. House for three decades after becoming the first registered nurse elected to Congress and the first Black chief psychiatric nurse at Dallas' Veterans Affairs hospital. She went on to become the first Black woman to chair the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and she also led the Congressional Black Caucus. She left office in January after repeatedly delaying her retirement. Before Congress, she served in the Texas legislature.
The family of the former Dallas Congresswoman is negotiating with Baylor Scott & White over alleged medical neglect that the family claims caused her death.
