Stephanie Tubbs Jones

When I first came to know Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died Aug. 20 of a brain aneurysm at the age of 58, she was very young. I had never seen anybody so energetic. She was bouncy and bubbly and charismatic. When she entered a room, the character of that room changed. People loved that beautiful smile she had. No other candidate on the judicial circuit at the time had that kind of appeal.

In 1998 I told her I was going to announce my retirement from Congress and wanted her to start thinking about replacing me. She did, and she won. When she got to Washington, she joined a committee that had jurisdiction over housing. She first started getting national attention for the dramatic way in which she went after predatory lenders and those who were milking people, particularly minorities, the poor and the disadvantaged. That became a real banner issue for her.

Recently, she had been an impassioned supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. She explained to me why she took her position: she had given her commitment to Hillary even before Barack Obama became a candidate. She felt that she had to keep her word and be loyal and not care what other people thought. Her loyalty and her word were her bond.

Stokes represented Ohio in Congress for 30 years