the final service will be held privately Saturday morning in Newark at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart it's expected to be attended by political heavyweights civil rights leaders and even celebrities who hail from the lieutenant Governor's Hometown Governor Murphy has ordered State and U.S flags to fly at half staff for the entire month of August in Oliver's honor the longest length of time someone in the state has ever been given that gesture for more on her Legacy I'm joined by our senior writer Colleen O'Dae Colleen this is a very historical day for a number of reasons what do we know about the last elected official to lay in state I mean there's some real significance here yeah as far as we know Sheila Oliver is going to be the the first at least Statewide elected official to Lions state in New Jersey we have not had a Statewide executive official die in office since Governor William Livingston back in 1790 so this is not something that happens very often I mean and also this is an elected executive who died while in office um another real significant moment for New Jersey to lose an official in that way yeah it's just not something that we are we are used to I mean we've we've lost congressmen or Senators Senator Lautenberg I think maybe may have been the last one to die in office right yeah of that significance but we have not lost a governor in office where does this leave the Murphy Administration I mean the governor has said repeatedly prior to her death that you know choosing her was uh very important to his ticket knowing her Legacy of Public Service where does this put him you know I think that he's going to have to find someone in kind of in the same mold because some of the things that she did really set her apart you know in terms of being the head of the Department of Community the affair she really was pushing for low-income housing and homelessness prevention which is you know different from what the past the prior lieutenant governor had been interested in um and she was also head of the wealth disparity task force and so that's another area where I think that's you know this Murphy's going to want to continue to push that forward so there was some pretty significant recommendations coming out of that such as no more public defender fees a first-time home buyers first generation home buyers program is that where her Legacy will remain the fact that she really looked at these disadvantaged communities economically challenged people in the state I mean a lot of her work before landing in the front office had to do with that would you say having covered her for covering her for for years that you know that's how she'll be remembered yeah I think so as you pointed out you know when she back in Newark she had co-founded a organization that fought to stop the demolition of publicly subsidized housing and led to a federal consent decree that required the Newark housing authority to replace any units that it demolished so housing has been a big factor she also set up a few years ago a civic association and I think that's going to be her Legacy going forward that that kind of works to help young women of color who are interested in politics Community organizing activism to kind of help them get it you know get a step a pipeline sure absolutely yeah yeah and that's something that I know I've heard her talk about in her time as in the assembly as speaker and of course as lieutenant governor Colleen O'Dae for us on The Life and Legacy of lieutenant governor Sheila Oliver thank you thank you very much Bree foreign [Music]