Former mayor and U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner will be honored in Houston and Austin this week ahead of a funeral service on Saturday.
Turner’s decades-long legacy representing Houston as a public official will be at the forefront of the services, organized after Turner died on Wednesday at the age of 70.
Turner, just two months into his first term representing the 18th Congressional District, was hospitalized briefly after attending President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last Tuesday night. He died in his Washington, D.C., apartment early Wednesday “from enduring health complications,” his family said in a statement.
Turner announced he had bone cancer in 2022. He said he was cancer-free after surgery and treatment that resulted in the reconstruction of a portion of his left jawbone. He said during his 2024 campaign for Congress that he largely had recovered from the disease, but did not intend to serve long in Congress because of his age and health concerns.
During 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives, Turner rose from a young politician and prolific orator to a respected leader in the Capitol. By the time he was elected Houston’s 62nd mayor in 2015, Turner was thought of as an elder statesman that guided the city through a series of crises, said Nancy Sims, a political consultant and lecturer at the University of Houston.
Turner will lie in state in the rotunda of Houston’s City Hall on Tuesday, as well as the state Capitol on Thursday and Friday, a testament to his impact on the city and statewide, Sims said.
“I think his legislative career is underestimated by Houstonians,” Sims said. “And yet, the city benefited greatly because he always fought for it in legislative issues. … What he loved most was the opportunity the city gave him, and he wanted to do that for everyone else as a legislator and mayor.”
Turner’s body will lie in the Houston City Hall rotunda at 901 Bagby St. from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, where members of the public are invited to pay their respects. A brief ceremony will take place on the City Hall steps outside at 9 a.m., where a combined Honor Guard of the Houston Fire and Houston Police will lead the procession of mourners into the rotunda, according to the city.
“He was a public servant right up until he took his last breath,” Mayor John Whitmire said last week.
The state House was where Turner built his career and legacy, Sims said. His time in City Hall — leading Houston through Hurricane Harvey, the pandemic and several other federally-declared disasters — is what he will most be remembered for in the minds of many Houstonians, Sims said.
“He was there front and center, out in the water pulling people to rescue,” Sims said. “That gave him a local and state profile, but even a national profile.”
From 12 p.m, Thursday until 12 p.m. Friday, Turner’s body will lie in honor at the Texas State Capitol in the Hall of the House of Representatives, according to his family.
The two events will lead into Turner’s funeral on Saturday in Houston at the church where he was a longtime member. The service will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The Church Without Walls, 5275 Queenston Blvd., in northwest Houston.
The church’s pastor, Dr. Ralph West, will officiate the service.
Members of the public planning to attend the funeral are asked to RSVP. The service will be livestreamed on the church’s website.
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