Death and state funeral of Sheldon Johnson (Johnsonverse)

On September 22, 2019, Sheldon Johnson, CEO of Johnson Industries from 1944 to 1981 and Senator of California since 1992, passed away of congestive heart failure. In his honor, the Johnson family announced that a memorial service would be held.
==Death==
Johnson had been in-and-out of the hospital since August 2018 with numerous health issues, including a heart attack in October 2018 where he was clinically dead for 15 minutes before being revived (reportedly, while being asked questions to assess his cognizance, he responded to the question "Who is the current president?" with "Oh, god", which told everyone in the room that he was mentally sound). On September 21, 2019, it was reported that Johnson's condition was rapidly declining.
At 2:13 PM PDT, Johnson was pronounced dead. WBC waited until after the conclusion of the USAC Gold Crown Series race at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway to make the announcement. For deaths in the Johnson family, there is a protocol similar to those within the British royal family, with operations named after American rivers such as Operation Colorado River (for Sheldon Johnson, Jr.), Operation Mississippi River (for Tim Johnson), and Operation Rio Grande (for Chloe Johnson); for Sheldon Johnson, it was Operation Ohio River.
==Preparation==
==State funeral==
Despite his past entanglements with the company, United States President Donald Trump declared that September 25 would be a national day of mourning, and that all flags would be at half-staff until the end of the month. Johnson received a state funeral from the state of California, which involved a funeral train from San Jose to Sacramento on the Northwest Corridor, then back to San Jose via Altamont Pass after lying in state in the state capitol building; Continental Rail #1472, the locomotive that starred in various Johnson productions, most notably the Tales from the Rails television series and also pulled the funeral trains for Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush (in the latter case, Union Pacific #4141 was to lead the train, but one of Bush's dying wishes was for the locomotive from one of his favorite shows to power the train), powered the train without any diesel helpers (thanks to advancements in steam locomotive technology developed by Continental Rail); Dick Van Dyke was expected to be at the throttle between Stockton and Livermore, but he couldn't make it out, and traffic over Altamont Pass was heavy and couldn't be cleared in time, so the train was forwarded to Fresno, and Tim Johnson's best friend Andy Helmsburgh, himself an engineer-in-training for Continental Rail, was drafted to take the throttle after his own grandfather's funeral in Fresno, taking the train all the way home via Pacheco Pass (by sheer coincidence, Helmsburgh's grandfather had died the same day as Sheldon Johnson). That same day, the USAC Gold Crown Series race at Pikes Peak International Raceway was renamed from the Howard Johnson's 225 to the Sheldon Johnson 225, and all cars had a decal memorializing him. Race winner Julius Hayden dedicated the win to Sheldon.
Passengers who were on the train, aside from Tim himself, included Chloe Johnson, Belle Armstrong, Sheldon Johnson Jr., Tammy Jo Johnson, Jenny Smith, Ricky, Bella, and Jesse S. Johnson, Tom Stephenson, the surviving cast members of Tales from the Rails, Elk Cabin, and The Reapers, Phil Stacker and his family, Andy's girlfriend Suki Honda, who rode in the cab with him when he took the throttle, and fellow California senator Kamala Harris.
==Broadcast==
Shortly after his death, all Johnson-owned networks (except Cartoon Network, Sprout, The Hub, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Playhouse Disney, Freeform, and The NASCAR Network) ceased all programming as longtime WBC news anchor Tom Stephenson delivered the news to a stunned nation; WBC, all ESPN networks, TNN, Comedy Central, WBC News Network, Game Show Network, and A&E simulcast all coverage of Johnson's funeral services, in tandem with ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, and BBC America.
==Aftermath==
Due to his death, Jerry Brown, the former Governor of California between 1975 and 1983, was selected as the interim Senator until the 2020 election.
==Reception==
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
Category:Johnsonverse