Ever meet one of those people who had a certain air about them. You know, the kind of person who is happy but not "fake-happy, the kind of happy like they are walking in the spirit?
That's what struck me about Stephanie Tubbs-Jones the first time I met her on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Tubbs-Jones died today after suffering an aneurysm. She was 58, the first African American woman elected to represent the state of Ohio in Congress and one of the highest ranking black political leaders in the country.
For those who have been following me, you know that I've spent the past year working in the U.S. Congress. I had often seen Tubbs-Jones on television, but I never met her personally until a few months ago outside a members-only elevator at the U.S. Capitol.
While other members of Congress often ride up on the members-only elevator alone or with their staff, while other members' staffers and constituents wait and wait and wait for the public elevator, Rep. Tubbs-Jones wasn't like that at all.
Instead she insisted that everyone get on the elevator with her, even if it meant she - and you - would be cramped inside.
Rep. Tubbs- Jones also differed from other representatives and senators in that she talked with everyone, not just talked, she embraced you. Rep. Tubbs-Jones was genuinely interested in people, even this congressional fellow who only planned to work in the nation's capitol temporarily.
I recall at the State of the Union Address earlier this year other members walked past one another, often only stopping to shake the hands of fellow Republicans or fellow Democrats. Not Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. A Democrat, she hugged both Republican and Democratic members.
And she laughed. She had a genuine smile that invited people into her sphere.
Stephanie Tubbs-Jones was someone you wanted to emulate. I'm not trying to deify her, but with Rep. Tubbs-Jones it wasn't simply talking about her faith like many politicans do, she actually walked in the light of Christ. And you could see that she did.
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