Rep. Jones of Ohio dies of hemorrhage

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 21, 2008

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after having a brain hemorrhage, a Cleveland Clinic official said.

Tubbs Jones, 58, died at 6:12 p.m. after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function.

Several major news organizations, including The Associated Press, prematurely reported her death Wednesday.

The reports were corrected after a doctor said at an afternoon news conference that Tubbs Jones was in critical condition with limited brain function. The Cleveland Clinic announced later that the 58-year-old Democrat had died.

The liberal Democrat, first elected in 1998, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights Tuesday night, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital in East Cleveland.