RIP, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio)

Some nice tributes from The PD.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones has indeed been in Pulitzer Prize winner Connie Schultz's kitchen: http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2008/08/news_agencies_pd_apologize_for.html

Young Stephanie Tubbs offered a guy a ride on her way to Case Western Reserve University. Turns out it was Muhammad Ali: http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2008/08/news_agencies_pd_apologize_for.html

I, too, had a nice experience with Stephanie Tubbs Jones. As a college student, we were assigned to go to the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland, sit it on a case, and write a news story about it. I had no idea what I was doing, and waited too long to do it. When I finally went down there, I picked a courtroom that turned out to be then-judge Stephanie Tubbs Jones's. I was there with a fellow student who I don't even remember.

The judge sent her bailiff over to ask who the hell we were since we were about the only people in the courtroom. "They're students from John Carroll," the bailiff told her. That was good enough.

I don't remember how long the case went on, but we couldn't stay for the verdict. It was to be delievered later that day. Now, these were pre-Internet days. The next day I couldn't find anything about the case in the newspaper. The only way to find out was to call down to the Justice Center. I dialed the courthouse and was put through to Stephanie Tubbs Jones's office. I expected a bailiff or some assistant to answer. The judge herself picked up on the first ring.

"Hi, I'm one of the students that was there yesterday, and I, uh, wanted to find out, uh ... is this the judge?"

"Guilty!" she said. She sounded kinda happy about it. "Guilty on this count! Guilty on that count!"

"Uh, thanks," I said, and hung up.

It was all probably very amusing to her, having the students come to her courtroom and call her for the results. Less then a decade later she was elected as Ohio's first black Congresswoman. She became a very powerful voice in Cleveland.

And she had a good time every step of the way.

RIP

 

And Write was right after all. Tubbs was an organ donor.

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7259425&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

I figured as much. You can't really blame the media when you have cops and family members telling you the person's dead, meanwhile medical personnel are saying no, she's not.

It's tricky reporting when you hear dead first and then not dead second; television saying the opposite of what you have and an editor breathing down your neck asking, "Is he fucking dead or not."

Luckily I've never had to retract a statement. I've always been lucky enough to have someone go on the record with the fact the deceased was a donor, usually within minutes of the hospital's denial that the person is dead.

 

She was dead when she was brought into the hospital and revived in order to save the organs.