I was saddened to get the news shortly before lunch that former Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, the longest serving female Representative in Texas History had passed away.
WFAA writes:
Prior to serving in Congress, Johnson also served three terms in the Texas Senate, where she represented Dallas County and the 23rd District from 1987 until she took national office in 1993.
Before moving to the Texas Senate, Johnson served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives and represented House District 33 from 1973 to 1977.
When she won that seat in 1972, she became the first Black woman ever elected to public office in the City of Dallas' history.
Later, as the leader of that chamber's Labor Committee, she would also become the first woman ever to lead a major Texas House committee.
Johnson—known to many in the community simply as "EBJ"—was born in Waco in 1935 when very few people who looked like her held positions of power. She would later go to nursing school and become the first registered nurse to be elected to the United States Congress.
As she rose up the ranks in the United States House of Representatives, Johnson secured millions of dollars in federal investment in North Texas—with a special focus on Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), which she called her "baby."
The Texas Tribune writes:
A towering Dallas political figure — once a nurse, state legislator and congresswoman — Johnson was the dean of the Texas Congressional delegation before retiring from office in 2022. She proved effective at her work due to her long tenure serving in the U.S. House — nearly 30 years at the time of her passing — and a pragmatist streak that made her open to working with Republicans.
"I am heartbroken to share the news that my mother, Eddie Bernice Johnson, has passed away," Johnson's son, Kirk Johnson, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. "She was a remarkable and loving mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and great grandmother, as well as a trailblazer and public servant. While we mourn the loss of an extraordinary woman, we celebrate her life and legacy."
Johnson became one of the most powerful Texas Democrats in recent memory to serve on Capitol Hill. She was the lone Texas-based committee chair in either chamber when she became the chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
She broke many glass ceilings: she was the first Black woman elected to any seat in Dallas, she was the first nurse and Black Dallasite to serve in Congress, and she was only the third Texas woman — behind Lera Thomas and Barbara Jordan, both from Houston — to represent the state in the U.S. House.
Texas Metro News writes:
She obtained her nursing certificate from Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame in 1955, then transferred to Texas Christian University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. In 1976 Ms. Johnson earned a Master of Public Administration from Southern Methodist University.
A champion of STEM, women’s rights, veterans, fair housing, transportation, the Affordable Care Act, the Women, and “EBJ” as many affectionately call her, stayed true to her beliefs and convictions.
A founder of the tri-Caucus (CBC, CHC, and CAPAC) and the Dallas Coalition of Hunger Solutions, Cong. Johnson accumulated several firsts during her lifetime, noted Ambassador Ron Kirk, who served as the first African American Secretary of State, Mayor of Dallas, and U.S. Trade Representative.
She was the first African American to serve as Chief Psychiatric Nurse at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital.
She served in the Texas House and Senate, where she was the first registered nurse to serve. When she went to Washington, she was the first registered nurse to ever serve in Congress, he pointed out, acknowledging several other firsts.
“She and my mother were good friends and she was like a second mother to me,” Kirk said.
Cong. Johnson, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Girlfriends Circlets., and Links Inc., was the first African American and first female chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
When then-President Jimmy Carter named her the Department of Health Education and Welfare regional director, she was the first African American to serve in that capacity.
Rest in Power EBJ.
