Eddie Bernice Johnson, the first nurse to be elected to Congress, died Dec. 29, 2023, at 88 years old.
Ms. Johnson received her nursing certificate in 1955 from St. Mary’s College at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She went on to get additional education from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
She later became the first Black woman to hold the position of chief psychiatric nurse at the Dallas VA hospital. In 1993, Ms. Johnson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for District 30 in Texas.
"Throughout her long career in public service, she was always clear-eyed about what she was fighting for: the right of every person in Dallas and across the country to live free from discrimination and to have the opportunity to live up to their full potential," Vice President Kamala Harris stated in a Dec. 31 news release acknowledging Ms. Johnson's death.