Mourners remember Rep. Donald Payne Jr. as humanitarian, New Jersey advocate

Each time Monica Sanchez reached out to Congressman Donald Payne Jr.’s office for her sustainability program with the United Nations, he responded without fail. He was a humanitarian at heart who always wanted to support marginalized communities, said Sanchez, holding a Guyanese flag as a symbol of his support for the community. 

“If he couldn’t do it himself, he directed us exactly where we could go and get some progress, for the community and we love him dearly,” she said. 

Sanchez joined dozens of mourners who lined up outside the Essex County Courthouse Wednesday afternoon to pay their respects to Payne, who died April 24 after suffering a heart attack three weeks earlier. He was 65 years old. 

Payne is lying in state in the historic courthouse in Newark, where he previously served as council president. The visitation period runs through midnight Wednesday, and a funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

His son, Jack, called his father a “good man” who loved his job in public service but balanced it with raising their family. 

“As much as he did in his public life, he did in his personal life,” he said. “Some of his proudest moments of being our father, he would tell us, is he would hear so many good things from other people about his three children.”

Several people waiting in line to enter the courthouse remembered Payne as a quiet giant who kept a low profile but always advocated for the 10th Congressional District during 12 years in the House of Representatives. 

Payne was elected to Congress after his father, Donald Payne Sr., died in office in 2012. Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) recalled how people stressed to the younger Payne the big shoes he had to fill — his father was the first Black person elected to Congress from New Jersey. 

“We shouldn’t only lose sight that not only did he fill those shoes and kept the legacy of his dad, he set his own path and created an inclusive agenda that lifted people up,” she said.