Eddie Bernice Johnson

Eddie Bernice Johnson (1934 to 2023) was an American Democratic politician from Texas who sat in the United States House of Representatives for the 30th congressional district from 1993 to 2023. Born in Waco, she trained as a nurse, earned a nursing degree at Texas Christian University and a Master of Public Administration at Southern Methodist University in 1976, and led psychiatric nursing at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital before entering politics. She won a Texas House seat in 1972 as the first black woman elected to public office from Dallas, later served as a federal regional health and education official under President Carter, and then spent terms in the Texas Senate. Elected to Congress in 1992 as the first registered nurse in that body, she became dean of the Texas delegation and, after Representative Don Young died in 2022, the oldest sitting House member. She retired when the 117th Congress ended.