Jones, Stephanie Tubbs, 1949-2008

<p>Stephanie Tubbs Jones won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1998, becoming the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. Nine years later she became one of the first African-American women to chair a standing congressional committee—the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the Ethics Committee. In the House, she focused on a range of policies important to her district, including home ownership, women’s health, and voting rights. “All my life I had wanted to help others, and I had been active in helping others,” she said. “I was always interested in service.”</p>

<p>Stephanie Tubbs Jones was born Stephanie Tubbs in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 10, 1949, to Mary Tubbs, a factory worker and cook, and Andrew Tubbs, an airline skycap. Raised in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood as the youngest of three daughters, she graduated from Collinwood High. At Case Western Reserve University, Jones founded the African American Students Association and, in 1971, graduated with a degree in sociology and a minor in psychology. She completed her law degree at Case Western University Law School in 1974. Jones then served as the assistant general counsel and the equal opportunity administrator of the northeast Ohio regional sewer district. She married Mervyn Jones and raised a son, Mervyn.</p>

<p>Jones eventually became an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor and trial attorney for the Cleveland district equal employment opportunity commission. When she and several friends worked on a successful political campaign in 1979, the group began promoting Jones for public office. Noting a lack of people of color on the bench, Jones ran for a local judgeship and won election to the Cleveland municipal court. Ohio Governor Richard Celeste then appointed Jones to the Cuyahoga County court of common pleas, where she served from 1983 to 1991. In 1992 she was elected the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, making her the state’s first African-American prosecutor and the only Black woman prosecutor in a major urban area in the country.</p>

<p>Stephanie Tubbs Jones (September 10, 1949 – August 20, 2008) was an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio's 11th congressional district from 1999 until her death in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, her district encompassed most of Downtown and Eastern Cleveland and many of the eastern suburbs in Cuyahoga County, including Euclid, Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from Ohio.</p>

<p>On December 19, 2006, Tubbs Jones was named Chairwoman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the 110th Congress. She was also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. On August 19, 2008, Tubbs Jones was found unconscious in her car, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a burst aneurysm. She was taken to an East Cleveland hospital, where she died the next day.</p>

JONES, Stephanie Tubbs, a Representative from Ohio; born in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, September 10, 1949; graduated from Collinwood High School, Cleveland, Ohio; B.A., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1971; J.D., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1974; elected to Cleveland, Ohio, municipal court, 1981; judge, Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 1983-1991; prosecutor, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 1991-1998; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Sixth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1999-August 20, 2008); chair, Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (One Hundred Tenth Congress); died on August 20, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio.