Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (right) takes a picture with her constituent, soror and RegalMag.com writer, Tisha L. Smith (Photo courtesy of Tisha L. Smith/Regal Media Group).
People often correlate a person’s homegoing to how they lived their lives and who they touched while on Earth.
If that is the case, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) touched people around the world because her funeral at Houston’s Fallbrook Church on Aug. 1 featured presidents, luminaries, celebrities and citizens who felt blessed to have had positive experiences with the congressperson from Houston’s 18th congressional district.
Jackson Lee’s former intern Isaiah Martin said, “It was a really beautiful service for the G.O.A.T. of Congress people. It was very dignified. It was like the homegoing for a queen. To see a former president on the stage, to see a future president on the stage, future speaker, former speaker, you had ambassadors there—it was regal.”
G.O.A.T. stands for the greatest of all time.
Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the funeral along with former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the service.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke.
Additionally, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) shared some words at the homegoing service at the Houston megachurch on the city’s northwest side of town.
Vice President Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for 2024, said, “She never allowed anything to be mediocre. She always expected in all of us that we would rise to a point of excellence, knowing life was too short, and there’s too much to be done.
Yilun Cheng and Samantha Ketterer of the Houston Chronicle reported, “The vice president said she understood Jackson Lee’s intensity came from a desire to fight for her country and constituents, from helping immigrants with their visa applications to keeping Houston pools open amid a historic heat wave to spearheading bills to protect the rights of Black residents, LGBTQ communities, women and children.”
Jackson Lee, 74, died on July 19 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Harris, who shared a bond with Jackson Lee as members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. delivered the congressperson’s eulogy.
She called her soror tough, caring, unrelenting and encouraging.
The first woman vice president called the Houston legislator one of the “smartest and most strategic legislators in Washington, D.C.”
However, Harris admitted, “Now, there were times, I will admit, if I saw her walking down the hall, I would almost want to hide because I knew whatever else may be on my mind, Sheila Jackson Lee would require a very serious and specific conversation with you about what she had on her mind, and then she would tell you exactly what she needed you to do to help her get it done.”
But Jackson Lee did not just demand commitment from other legislators.
She expected it from her staff as well.
Glenn Rushing, who worked for Jackson Lee, described his former boss as a “Type-A, perfectionist” who had a “demanding personality.”
Rushing said, “I know firsthand the long nights working with her from 12 and 1 A.M. in the morning and back at 9 A.M. I know about her attending multiple hearings at the same time, maybe late, but debating bills and making floor statements daily. I know about her attending hundreds of funerals and birthday parties and attending every high school graduation ceremony in her district.”
The Houston Chronicle added, “The congresswoman, among other accomplishments, led the rewrite of the Violence Against Women Act and championed the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Jackson Lee was the only politician to get an amendment into every bill that came up.
Rep. Jayapal said, “As one of the first progressive women of color to have a national platform, she used that platform to speak with deep moral clarity at every opportunity despite racism, sexism and discrimination.”
Because of her tenacity, former Secretary Clinton said that her passing has left a void in the Democratic Party and that her work over the past few decades paved the way for potentially the first woman United States president.
She said, “We lost her too soon. We could use her voice now. But come next January, when our first woman president takes up office, I’ll be thinking of Sheila, wondering what up in Heaven she’s wearing, what magnificent long scarf she has wrapped around herself, what hairdo she has managed to achieve for this special occasion.
For the special occasion that represented a celebration of Jackson Lee’s life, the congressperson managed to pull off performances by musical icons Stevie Wonder, Shirley Caesar, Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams.
Wonder sang “Falling in Love With Jesus,” a song by gospel singer Jonathan Butler and jazz great and native Houstonian, Kirk Whalum
The Motown Records icon also sang his classic song “As” from his 1976 album, “Songs in the Key of Life.”
Despite all the platitudes from dignitaries, the congressperson made her biggest impact with her children because of the example she set.
Jackson Lee’s son Jason Lee said, “Human evolution is about one generation exceeding the next. That’s not in the cards for us, and if I had any doubt, after today, it is clear I will not be greater than the generation before me, and that’s O.K. because the bar was set so high.”
Her daughter Erica Lee Carter said, “I wore her cape. I wore her cloth. But I will never wear her crown.”
