Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to attend the funeral service for her “dear friend,” the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, in Houston later this week.
The “Celebration of Life” is scheduled for Thursday at Fallbrook Church, according to Jackson Lee’s office.
Other elected officials in the U.S. and abroad are also expected to attend the service, according to Fox 26.
Jackson Lee died on July 19 at the age of 74 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. She is survived by her husband, Elwyn Lee, and her two children, Jason and Erica.
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE HAS PASSED AWAY AFTER BATTLE WITH PANCREATIC CANCER
Sheila Jackson Lee attends the UNCF A Mind Is…Gala at Hilton Americas-Houston on November 18, 2023, in Houston, Texas. (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)
She also previously battled breast cancer, having been diagnosed in 2011, before announcing the following year she was cancer free.
The congresswoman had represented Texas’ 18th congressional district for 30 years. Prior to her time in Congress, Jackson Lee served as a judge before she was elected to an at-large Houston City Council seat in 1989.
Last year, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Houston mayor, losing by a wide margin to then-state Sen. John Whitmire, also a Democrat, before announcing she would seek re-election to Congress.
Harris said after Jackson Lee’s death that the congresswoman was a “tenacious advocate for justice and a tireless fighter for the people of Houston and the people of America.” The vice president also remembered her as a “dear friend for many years, and a fellow member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.”
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE SAYS SHE HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH PANCREATIC CANCER
Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. (REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)
“As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I had the opportunity to work closely with her on many issues and to observe her leadership firsthand. She was relentless โ one of our nation’s fiercest, smartest, and most strategic leaders in the way she thought about how to make progress happen,” Harris said in a July 20 statement. “There was never a trite or trivial conversation with the Congresswoman. She was always fighting for the people of Houston and the people of America.”
Jackson Lee, Harris’ statement said, was “first and foremost, a leader dedicated to serving the people of her beloved city.”
“Congresswoman Jackson Lee was also a national leader,” Harris’ statement added. “As a champion for womenโs rights, she played a vital role in reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, landmark legislation that improved the lives of millions of women and girls across the country. She also authored the law that made Juneteenth a national holiday, a law I was proud to co-sponsor as a United States Senator. She saw what could be โ a nation that is more equal, more fair, and more free โ and she dedicated her life to realizing that vision.”
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee attends “The Big Payback” Premiere during the 2022 Tribeca Festival at Village East Cinema on June 11, 2022, in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
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This is the vice president’s third visit to Texas in the last month and second since she became the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, including a trip to Houston last week.
Harris visited Houston’s Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday to receive a briefing on the recovery efforts following Hurricane Beryl. The next day, she delivered remarks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th national convention.
Earlier this month, she was in Dallas to give a speech at an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. convention.
