WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to attend the wake Monday night in Dallas for longtime congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who died Dec. 31 at age 89.
This would be Biden’s first visit to Dallas since taking office. Presidents rarely attend funerals of former House members and the visit reflects both Johnson’s prominence and legacy and Biden’s fondness for her. A White House aide confirmed Friday evening that Biden will come to Dallas to pay his respects.
“Throughout her life, and as the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, she was an icon and mentor to generations of public servants, through whom her legacy of resilience and purpose will endure,” the president said in a statement the day she died. In the Legislature and “as the first Black American elected to Congress from Dallas, she fought to expand civil rights, to create jobs, to combat the climate crisis, and much more.”
Johnson, who retired a year ago, ended her 30-year career in Congress as chair of the House science committee, focusing on climate policy and NASA and working to expand the U.S. high-tech sector.
Biden lauded her leadership aiding in the passage of two of his signature achievements, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act he signed in 2022 that provides funds to jump-start investment in clean energy technology and restore the U.S. semiconductor industry.
“Eddie Bernice turned a childhood dream to work in medicine into a lifetime of service, fighting to get millions of Americans access to healthcare, education, and opportunity,” he said.
Johnson will lie in state Monday at Fair Park’s Hall of State from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A wake is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. at Concord Church, where the funeral will be held Tuesday morning. She will be buried Wednesday in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery.
Biden’s absence from Dallas as president has been unusual three years into his term.
The area’s deep well of donors from both parties has drawn presidents regularly. Many stumped in Dallas for themselves and for allies seeking seats in the Senate or House, or sought platforms speaking to trade groups and other conventions.
Johnson, elected in 1992 after a stint in the Texas Senate, overlapped in Congress with Biden for 16 years before he gave up his Senate seat and became vice president.
“She and I worked together throughout her 30 years in Congress,” Biden recalled in his statement. Sending condolences to her family, he said constituents in Texas’ 30th Congressional District, anchored in southern Dallas County, “were so fortunate to have her as their champion for so long.”
He called her “a dedicated nurse, state legislator, and longtime U.S. congresswoman with immense courage and a commitment to the promise of America. She had unwavering dedication to the people of North Texas…. I’ve always been grateful for her friendship and partnership.”
Johnson faced racial discrimination when she started her nursing career at the Veterans Administration hospital in Dallas but rose to chief psychiatric nurse. “She helped our nation to fulfill its most sacred obligation, to care for the troops we sent into harm’s way,” Biden said.
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