A REAL Hero

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) died Wednesday at the age of 58, becoming the seventh member of the House to die in office since January 2007. A Huron Hospital spokeswoman said Tubbs Jones had suffered an aneurysm that caused her to lose consciousness while driving her car near Cleveland Tuesday night. Her doctor said that the aneurysm was in an inaccessible part of her brain, and that she had “limited” brain function in the hours before her death. The daughter of an airport skycap, Tubbs Jones was the first black woman to represent Ohio in the House. Since 2007, she was chairwoman of the House ethics committee and a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Tubbs Jones is the third African-American woman, all Democrats, to die during the 110th Congress, which began in January, 2007. The late Rep. Julia Carson died last Dec. 5, and Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald died on April 22, 2007. Both were from California.


She poured her heart and soul into her job," said U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. "She worked so hard and gave everything she could. I'm devastated. Wherever we'd go, we'd speak of each other as brother and sister.
It's an incalculable loss."