22 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 29, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photos by Bruce Adler and Dean Moses
A ‘FIGHTER’ MOURNED
Peralta, 47, remembered as a community champion
BY ZACHARY GEWELB, MARK
HALLUM AND ROBERT POZARYCKI
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Hundreds of mourners fi lled St. Joan
of Arc Church in Jackson Heights on
Tuesday morning for the funeral Mass of
state Senator Jose Peralta, who died suddenly
on Nov. 21, from an illness. He was
just 47.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-
Cousins and Mayor Bill de Blasio attended
the funeral on Nov. 27 along with
Councilman Daniel Dromm, who shared
a district with Peralta.
“Jose was a fi ghter for those who did not
have the voice,” Dromm said. “He was a
fi ghter for our immigrant community. He
was the main sponsor of the DREAM Act,
he was a fi ghter for LGBT rights when
nobody else would be there for us. He
voted for marriage equality. He always
spoke up for the little person, he always
spoke up for the voiceless.”
Th e incumbent state senator died last
Wednesday, while undergoing treatment
at Elmhurst Hospital, surrounded by his
family, according to WPIX-TV. It’s not
exactly clear, however, what caused his
death.
Th e New York Daily News initially
reported that Peralta had apparently suffered
a heart attack, but Peralta’s wife,
Evelyn, told the paper later that he had
suff ered some kind of infection, perhaps
sepsis or meningitis, that began days earlier.
In an interview with the New York
Pall bearers carry the body of state Senator Jose Peralta out of St. Joan of Arc Church as his family mourns in the background
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