Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver joins long list of NJ elected officials who died in office

Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver's death Tuesday marked an unfortunate milestone in the history of politics in New Jersey.

At 71, the first Black woman to serve as the speaker of the state Assembly became the first lieutenant governor to die in office.

In its modern history, New Jersey has seen dozens of untimely deaths in prominent political positions at the state and federal levels of government. However, Oliver, who was born in Newark and became a community leader in Essex County and then Trenton, is one of only two women to die during their terms in office.

The first was Wynona M. Lipman. A three-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New Jersey, Lipman was a member of the New Jersey state Senate for nearly three decades and a groundbreaker, as Oliver was. Elected in 1972, she served in the state Senate until her death on May 9, 1999.

Born in Georgia, the onetime Fulbright scholar began her involvement in New Jersey politics in Montclair, where she lived and worked as a special education teacher. After gaining a foothold at the municipal level, Lipman joined the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1968. Four years later, she was sworn in as the first African American woman elected to the New Jersey Senate.

Lipman became the Senate's longest-serving member and "devoted herself to the underdog cause," according to her Women’s Project of New Jersey biography. In the Senate, she held posts on the New Jersey Court Team on Domestic Violence, the Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and the Governor’s Council on AIDS before she died at the age of 67.

More: NJ lawmakers, leaders offer tributes to Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver after her death

Other deaths in office have included that of William Livingston, a former governor and chancellor of the New Jersey Court of Chancery. An Albany, New York, native, Livingston was a member of the New York Colonial Assembly before retiring to Elizabeth. Roused by conflict with the British, Livingston became a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and in 1774 joined the military leadership full-time. Two years later, he resigned to become the first governor elected under a new state constitution. He won every election after that until his death on July 25, 1790, at the age of 66.

Livingston's secretary of state from 1778 onward, Bowes Reed, also died in office. The Burlington native was 54 when he died on July 20, 1794.

One of Livingston's predecessors, Colonial Gov. Lewis Morris, died in office eight years after first gaining the post. The Bronx native was 74.

More recent deaths in New Jersey politics have included Peter Biondi, a state assemblyman who died in office in 2011, and U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg. Lautenberg, a Paterson native, served in the Senate from 1982 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2013, when he died at 89 from pneumonia while suffering from stomach cancer.

Another famous U.S. senator from North Jersey, Dwight W. Morrow of Englewood, died in office at the age of 58 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in October 1931.

Among the more notable examples in state-level politics was the Aug. 29, 1950, death of James E. Fraser. Born 34 years and 25 days earlier, "Sonny" was a champion amateur golfer who joined the New Jersey Assembly in 1948. He was confined to a wheelchair by Hodgkin's disease in 1949 and died from the illness the following year as speaker of the Assembly.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ elected officials who died in office