On Sept. 30, the body of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was flown to San Francisco on a military flight from Joint Base Andrews with full honors.
Her office said Feinstein, 90, died Sept. 29 of natural causes.
Dianne Feinstein
In the Senate, an institution that runs on seniority, she was the longest-tenured female senator, and the oldest sitting U.S. senator, and the senior Democratic member of the Senate.
She served from 1992 to 2023, a central figure in California politics, fighting for gun control measures and chastising the CIA for providing inaccurate information about its torture operations to gather intelligence.
She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, serving nine years, then became the first woman to serve as San Francisco mayor after George Moscone was shot in 1978. She served 10 years.
She lost a bid for governor in 1990 but was chosen California’s first female senator in a special election in 1992.
Sen. Feinstein’s body was accompanied by her daughter Katherine Feinstein, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Feinstein’s chief of staff James Sauls.
Other members of the senator’s staff, both current and former, watched the departure and paid their respects.
She had become increasingly frail after a bout with the shingles virus that put in her the hospital in late February. She returned to the Capitol on May 10, using a wheelchair, with her office saying she experienced Ramsay-Hunt syndrome, a rare condition experienced in 2022 by singer Justin Bieber that paralyzes one side of the face.
Her office also said she contracted encephalitis, inflammation of the brain, while recovering from the virus, which resolved after she left the hospital in March.
She was working on a reduced schedule.
Feinstein’s body will lie in state at San Francisco City Hall before the funeral on Thursday, to be live-streamed.
Feinstein’s death, Newsom said, was “a complete shock.”
He said he and his staff had “checked in all the time” to see how the senator was doing and were told, up until 48 hours before her death, “she’s doing great.”
His last conversation with Feinstein was “was unfortunately too long ago,” he said. “That’s something I deeply regret.”
Photos Credit: Cpl. Rhianna Ballenger
Video Credit: Sr. Airman Daekwon Stith