Former Gov. M. Jodi Rell to lie in state at Connecticut Capitol next week

CT Insider – Monday, November 25, 2024
By Ken Dixon

Arrangements were still in formative stages on Monday, but next Tuesday Dec. 3 has been picked for the day that former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who died last week at 78, will lie in state for the public to visit in the State Capitol building.

Rell’s casket will be available for public viewing from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., followed by a service at the Cathedral of St. Joseph on nearby Farmington Avenue in Hartford. It will be in the Capitol’s East Atrium, near the statue of State Hero Nathan Hale, the location where in 2004, upon taking the oath of office, Rell greeted a long line of well wishers from around the state.

“Governor Rell began her first term as governor with a series of open houses at the Capitol and across the state to meet Connecticut residents,” Speaker of the House Matt Ritter said Monday. “It’s a fitting tribute to her and her family to open the Capitol while the people of Connecticut honor her public service.”

The lying in state event follows the tradition of Gov. Ella T. Grasso, of Windsor Locks, whose body lay in state following her death in 1981 at age 61, and Nelson C.L. Brown II of Groton, a former speaker of the House who died in 2011 at age 89.

Rell, a former longtime state representative from Brookfield who then served nearly 10 years at lieutenant governor under fellow Republican Gov. John G. Rowland, rose after Rowland resigned in the summer of 2004, preceding a federal guilty plea for corruption that December. She served the two years of Rowland’s term, then a single four-year term after she was elected in her own right in 2006. Rell, whose popularity topped 80 percent, promoted major ethics reforms including voluntary public financing for General Assembly and top-of-the-ticket races.

Access this article at its original source.