BY WALTER ELLIOTT
NEWARK – “When we arrived at the cathedral, Mother looked out and asked me, ‘Is this all for Sheila?’ I said, ‘Yes, Mom – it’s all for her.” – Brother Charles Oliver on the reaction of Mother Jennie Oliver, 95, to the audience for Sheila Y. Oliver’s funeral at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Aug. 12.
Hundreds and thousands of people took the time here and in Trenton Aug. 10-12 to pay respects, celebrate the life and accomplishments and measure the quality of the loss of Sheila Yvette Oliver.
It was far more than those in Newark and East Orange who respectively honored their favorite native and adopted daughter. There were people from across New Jersey and representatives from the federal government who paid respects in the State House Rotunda in Trenton Aug. 10, in Essex County’s Historic Courthouse Rotunda Aug. 11 and for her memorial service here Aug. 12.
All 120 State Senators and General Assembly members paid visits to at least one place where the former Lieutenant Governor’s body was lying in state.
Sen. Richard J. “Dick” Codey, for example, was among the first 50 people who filed into the Historic Courthouse 10 a.m. Aug. 11. He, like other mourners until 10 p.m. Saturday, took the elevator to the first floor and took one of 12 waiting room seats before getting his turn before Oliver’s casket.
Codey was seen having a brief interview with a reporter while on his way out of the courthouse and into the passenger side of his waiting car at 10:25 a.m.
“Sheila Oliver was the embodiment of the New Jersey version of the American Dream and paved the way for future generations throughout her history-making career,” said Codey. “Her and I were great friends and once teammates, having run off the line in a tightly contested race in the 1990s with LeRoy Jones. She always made us proud.”
Codey was not the first nor the last to refer to Oliver’s career of integrity and glass ceiling shattering. The girl who was among Weequahic High School’s Class of 1970 graduates had gone on to become an East Orange School District Board of Education member and president, an Essex County then-freeholder, General Assemblywoman, Assembly Speaker and Lt. Governor.
Oliver, 71, was the first African American woman Assembly Speaker and Lt. Governor. She was often the only woman and/or African American in the rooms of power.
Oliver, who was also N.J. Community Affairs Director since 2018, was Acting Governor July 29 while Gov. Phil Murphy was on his annual vacation. She admitted herself at RWJBarnabas Health Cooperman-Barnabas Medical Center, however, on July 31; she turned her acting duties over the Senate President Nicholas Scutari.
Oliver’s family, on Noon Aug. 1, announced that Oliver had died of an undisclosed condition or illness – stunning those who knew her personally, professionally or by reputation.
Codey was one of the few local, county, state and federal officials who attended the at-capacity June 12 funeral at the Sacred Heart Basilica. Murphy and five former Governors, however, sat in the first pew.
Murphy, one of 19 speakers Saturday, said that Oliver became an honorary member of his family since accepting his 2017 invitation to join his gubernatorial election campaign.
“Sheila was always ready to give me advice,” said Murphy. “Sheila loved New Jersey like a mother and she shared that love with us every single day. She rolled up her sleeves again and again to extinguish the embers of inequality.”
Murphy mourned that the goals that he and Oliver strived to complete before their 2025 term expirations will “tragically, never be accomplished.”
Former Gov. Jim McGreevey recalled Oliver’s talent for listening to people in all walks of life and for remembering their details.
“I work with helping people who are returning from prison and she called me about one of them,” said McGreevey. “She asked me if I could help him and then recited every detail of that young man’s life.”
U.S. Sen. Donald M. Payne recalled when he and Oliver were neighbors a block apart and Newark Public School students. Vice President Kamala Harris with an office representative, and President Joe Biden, in a delivered letter, were also present.
“Sheila knew what was right – it lived in her bones – and she never stopped pushing our nation to live up to its highest ideals,” said Biden. “She’s defined her dedication, passion and advocacy. In the years to come, the power of her example will inspire future generations of leaders to walk through the doors of opportunity she (had) opened for them.”
Some speakers, including Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake and State Sen. Nia Gill, remembered Oliver’s personal side.
Gill recalled the times they would shop for clothes in Montclair. When Gill and Oliver once realized they had bought the same dresses, Oliver said, “Let’s go in together with the same dress.”
Timberlake, who went with Oliver to a recent Beyonce concert, encouraged her to start a family while as a state legislator. Timberlake and fellow Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter both appeared wearing purple and kente cloth sashes – kente for heritage and purple for royalty.
“Sheila may have been the only woman of color in the room,” said Timberlake, “but she had an army behind her – and the first rank were made of African American women.”
Some other speakers, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the Rev. Al Sharpton, equated Oliver with the trailblazing U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm in being “Unbossed and Unbought.”
“Sheila never let the position make her – she made the position,” said Sharpton. “Leave here determined to keep on fighting what she did.”
The Oliver family, with the assistance of Whigham Funeral Home, carried their beloved Sheila to a private local burial.
American and state flags Aug. 13 remain at half staff or half mast across New Jersey as they will through Sept. 1.
Temporary Newark Police Division “No Parking” signs were still posted along the two blocks of Mt. Prospect Avenue nearest the Basilica. Mourning bunting still graces the front entrance of Timberlake’s Brick Church East Orange field office.
An electric message board on the Springdale Avenue side of the Sheila Y. Oliver Academy was still flashing the following message:
LT. GOVERNOR
SHEILA OLIVER,
YOU WILL BE
ALWAYS IN
OUR HEARTS.
